14 Slides That Show How Bad Things Are for US Airlines

Dizzying falls. Hopefully we can all see them into the upswing with new travels …. some day!

No sorrow for those greedy slugs! After their stock buybacks, overextended loans to purchase equipment, imposition of absurd fees, reduction in seat comfort, increased pax capacity, lack of amenities and soaring bottom line record profits, we the people are going to bail them out of their self created financial hole? Laissez-faire!

Laissez-faire went out the window decades ago, if not centuries. Whether we like it or not, those greedy slugs provide an essential service in today's world. They'll get bailed out, hopefully with conditions that help the flying public as well as their shareholders (considerable overlap in those categories).

Now the cruise lines are another story. Nothing essential about what they provide.

I would’ve preferred that some of my taxes be spent toward high-speed rail or just plain rail upgrades. While there may always be a “need” for air long haul trips, the U.S. could also use this time to reframe its transportation priorities.

Personally, I’m not looking forward to returning to an airport for domestic travel any sooner than I have to! There’s a reason I chose Southwest the last two trips I made before the virus.

No sorrow for those greedy slugs!

I just love our civil society. Dont hold back, tell us what you really think.

I know someone who had a long and lucrative career as a pilot and captain for a major airline. He would agree that the executives at the top are indeed greedy slugs.

Whether it is accurate or not to do so, I doubt airlines are the only industry where the employees view the denizens of the C-suite as "greedy slugs."

The most striking slide to me is the TSA Checkpoint Traveler Throughput slide. From > 2 million per day to around 100,000. It makes me want to fly just to see all those empty airports (and all the parked planes at ATL), but that would be socially irresponsible, I guess.

I love flying. I love planes. I love airports. I love airlines. So, I do feel bad for the airlines and their employees.

And I hope Doug Parker finds humility through all of this...

“I don’t think we’re ever going to lose money again,” Parker said. “We
have an industry that’s going to be profitable in good and bad times.”

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2017/09/28/american-airlines-ceo-well-never-lose-money-again/715467001/

Not exactly surprising, but in a letter to employees (link below), the CEO and president of United stated that...

"less than 200,000 people flew with us during the first two weeks of April this year, compared to more than 6 million during the same time in 2019, a 97 percent drop. And we expect to fly fewer people during the entire month of May than we did on a single day in May 2019."

Their short-term forecast was also not encouraging...

"So, while we have not yet finalized changes to our schedule for July and August, we expect demand to remain suppressed for the remainder of 2020 and likely into next year."

https://hub.united.com/2020-04-15-a-message-from-oscar-munoz-and-scott-kirby-2645729257.html

That makes me sad.