United says it will drop widely scorned ticket-change fees
The move by United Airlines will put pressure on American Airlines and Delta Air Lines to drop their change fees, also $200 on domestic travel.
The move by United Airlines will put pressure on American Airlines and Delta Air Lines to drop their change fees, also $200 on domestic travel.
The pandemic has caused airline travel to fall sharply, decimating revenue. Travel has recovered somewhat from very low points in March and April, but it still hasn’t come back to its pre-pandemic levels.
Passenger traffic has recovered slightly since the beginning of the pandemic but remains down 70% from a year ago, and carriers say they need fewer workers.
American Airlines is planning to drop flights to up to 30 smaller U.S. cities if a federal requirement to continue those flights expires at the end of next month, an airline executive familiar with the matter said Thursday.
United’s planned new winter flights to Florida, which will depart from New York, Boston, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Columbus, Ohio, are aimed at leisure travelers. But the airline is prepared to reverse course if necessary.
The moves come as airlines try to reassure passengers and their own employees about safety during a pandemic that has made many people afraid to fly.
The furloughs would include 15,000 flight attendants, 11,000 customer service and gate agents, 5,500 maintenance workers and 2,250 pilots.
American’s move matches the policy of United Airlines but contrasts sharply with rivals that limit bookings to create space between passengers to minimize the risk of contagion.
Airlines for America, a trade organization, said a group of major American airlines will begin “vigorously” enforcing face-covering policies after reports of travelers not being held to the safety standard.
After a pronounced slump in air travel in the spring, airlines are adding back flights as they hope to salvage some lost revenue during the key summer travel season.
As states and localities reopen for business, carriers are developing procedures to ensure that flying is safe.
American Airlines said it will aggressively add back flights in July, while United Airlines also announced plans to add back flights, while taking a more cautious approach.
Shortly after disclosing the job cuts, Boeing announced Wednesday that it has resumed production of the grounded 737 Max jetliner. Two deadly crashes of Max jets pushed Boeing into a financial crisis months before the coronavirus squeezed global air travel to a trickle.
The airline said trip cancellations have pulled back from a peak in March but remain at levels that Southwest has never seen, as customers scrap plans to travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
Indianapolis-based Republic Airways told The Wall Street Journal that it was still in discussions with the Treasury.
The U.S. Treasury Department and leading airlines continued negotiating Monday over terms of relief payments, with the Treasury sticking to a proposal that could give the government an ownership stake in the nation’s leading carriers.
The number of Americans getting on airplanes has sunk to a level not seen in more than 60 years, as people shelter in their homes to avoid catching or spreading the new coronavirus.
The entire airline industry is in crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying recommendations and mandates for social distancing.
Airlines are seeing bookings plummet and cancellations soar as fear of infection causes many Americans to avoid flying. That’s leading to drastically reduced ticket prices.
United said Sunday night it expects planes to be only 20% to 30% full at best, down from nearly 90% before the virus hit. The airline said the cuts could extend into the peak summer travel season.