There’s no doubt the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the airline industry, which only now is making small – emphasis on small – progress in making up for the lack of demand.
But it’s still not even close to what it was a year ago and might take another two years or more before returning to what airlines have been accustomed to.
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That has frustrated many, including American Airlines CEO Doug Parker. Parker is tired of throwing caution to the wind and, despite a surge in positive cases of the virus in more than 30 states and a general reticence among some fliers to avoid getting on a flight, Parker says it’s time.
“Let’s go fly, for God’s sake,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll pull it back,” noting it’s easier to cancel flights than to add them.
American has brought back almost half of the 410 jets it grounded and parked in the spring, when the pandemic was at its worst, and according to the WSJ will offer twice as many seats for sale this week as United and 50 percent more than Delta.
American also entered into an agreement with JetBlue that will help as well.
But passengers are still scarce. The Transportation Security Administration screened an average of 661,811 people a day during the first five days of July – 90 percent more than the first five days of April but still off more than 75 percent from the first five days of July 2019.
American and virtually every other airline has warned that it will start layoffs on Oct. 1.
“I just hate this,” said Parker. “There’s not enough demand to support the people we have.”
