As traditional US summer holiday spots like Florida and Las Vegas begin loosening restrictions after an almost-three-month coronavirus-forced hibernation, airlines are seeing passenger interest rise to these destinations, but also across their networks. The Walt Disney collection of amusement parks, located near Orlando in central Florida, and gaming hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada are some of the most popular US domestic holiday destinations. Airlines that serve those cities are reacting to the phased reopenings of these businesses by increasing frequencies from around the country to make sure travelers can get there in time. “We have seen an uptick in bookings [to Las Vegas] since the governor’s announcement of resorts reopening,” ultra-low-cost carrier Allegiant Air tells FlightGlobal on 1 June. “Just as demand for western Florida and the panhandle have been trending up as the communities have announced reopenings, we’d expect to see upward movement for Las Vegas and Orlando – traditionally strong markets which have been the slowest to rebound – with the successful reopening of the Strip and Walt Disney World.” Hotels on the “Strip” – a long thoroughfare in the middle of Las Vegas where most casinos are located – as well as across the region will be permitted to reopen on 4 June, with numerous properties taking full advantage and announcing they will begin doing business just after midnight. In Orlando, some amusement venues have opened their doors to the public already, with others opening in the course of the next two weeks. The city’s Walt Disney World theme parks are setting up to reopen from 11 July. Both cities imposed orders closing the resorts, hotels, parks and casinos in mid-March, effectively choking off most travel and shutting down their tourism-reliant economies. In addition to vacationers, the two cities are also popular destinations for trade fairs and company outings. At the moment, however, there is no indication when the business travelers will return. Derek Stevens, owner of the D Las Vegas Hotel and Casino offered 2,000 free one-way flights from cities across the country to Las Vegas between 3 June and 12 June to support the city’s reopening. Shortly after the announcement, the casino received more than 12,000 requests. “We are just trying to do our share to keep America flying and keep Las Vegas rolling,” Stevens said in a video message on the casino’s website. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the biggest carrier in and out of Las Vegas’ McCarran International airport, said it is operating “about 100 flights” per day, approximately half of what it would be offering during peak travel periods. There are monitoring demand and will add extra flights should it become necessary to ensure we’re booking roughly two-thirds of a flight so that we can leave the middle seats open,” the airline says on 1 June. Southwest has committed to leaving the middle seat on its all-Boeing 737 fleet free until the end of July. Delta Air Lines, the second largest carrier to Las Vegas, says that in May the airline operated ten daily flights to Las Vegas from hubs around the country. That number will rise to 11 in June and 18 in July, the Atlanta-based airline says. Last month, the carrier announced that it was reinstating flights to more than 100 destinations in June after it saw small increases in leisure bookings for domestic travel to vacation destinations. “People are booking on the expectation and hope that things will get better,” Delta’s chief financial officer Paul Jacobsen said on 19 May. European airlines also expect to be returning to both Orlando and Las Vegas in the coming weeks. According to Cirium networks data, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Condor and Edelweiss will offer direct flights from the UK and Europe beginning in June and July. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which oversees security screenings at 450 US airports, said passenger numbers are slowly rising from a low of just 87,534 travelers screened on 14 April to 352,000 passengers on 31 May. That is the highest number since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic crisis in March, but still far lower than last year’s count of 2.5 million on the same day.

Source: Cirium

South African Airways’ rescuers are terminating leases on nearly half the airline’s 40 leased aircraft, while those on another 15 have been undergoing renegotiation. The carrier had a fleet of 49 jets when it entered the business rescue process on 5 December last year, including nine Airbus A340-300s and -600s that it owned. Forty other aircraft were leased and a draft business plan – drawn up by the rescue practitioners, but disclosed by the South African political opposition party – details their status. The plan shows termination of leases is being carried out on six A330-200s, three A340-300s, three A340-600s, and seven A319s. Some of these terminations have been concluded and the aircraft returned. Two Boeing 737-300SF freighters have reached the end of lease, adds the draft plan, published by the Democratic Alliance. Five A330-300s and 10 A320s are listed as having been the subject of renegotiation of their lease agreements, to reduce rental costs, although finalisation of agreements is on hold until there is “clarity” on SAA’s future. SAA had also introduced four A350-900s, two subleased from Air Mauritius and two from lessor Avolon subleased through Hainan Airlines. Retention of these A350s, the plan indicates, will depend on the future route network of SAA. SAA entered business rescue serving 21 routes including nine international sectors, 15 regional and six domestic. The draft plan states that, last year, only eight routes – one international and seven regional – were profitable. SAA made losses of R3 billion ($172 million) on its international routes over the 2018-19 fiscal year, and nearly another R1.2 billion on regional and domestic services. 11 routes including the long-haul services to Hong Kong, Sao Paulo and Munich would still have remained “significantly loss-making” with “no option to optimise further”, the draft plan adds, even if costs were slashed by 25% and revenues reduced by 10%. No firm details of the future route network for a restructured SAA feature in the draft plan, which is still being supplemented with information and remains subject to updates and consultation.

Source: Cirium

Emirates plans to cut an unspecified number of jobs as the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll on the carrier. The Dubai-based carrier said in a 31 May statement that it has come to the conclusion that "we unfortunately have to say goodbye to a few of the wonderful people that worked for us", saying that it had reviewed all possible scenarios before making this decision. "We continuously are reassessing the situation and will have to adapt to this transitional period. We do not view this lightly, and the company is doing everything possible to protect jobs wherever we can," it adds. "Where we are forced to take tough decisions, we will treat people with fairness and respect. We will work with impacted employees to ensure they are looked after and taken care of with necessary means." Emirates does not go into details about the redundancies in its latest statement, but as of 17th May Bloomberg News report said the airline was planning to cut around 30,000 jobs. Reuters in a 31 May report cited two company sources saying trainee pilots and cabin crew are among those being laid off.

Source: Cirium