The recent financial report released by the U.S. aviation industry shows that due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the industry is still shrinking, and the decline in performance is temporarily difficult to reverse.
Southwest Airlines said on the 26th that due to the epidemic, the company has overstaffed the tourism industry and is currently providing a new round of voluntary leave plans to employees.
Southwest Airlines said in an email, Reuters: “The company has overstaffed in many areas, so according to the company’s estimated level of manpower, some departments will provide additional opportunities for employees to extend their leave from March.”
“Some of the staff previously participated in the six-month voluntary leave program and are expected to return to work on March 1, which coincides with the previous round of leave plans,” the company added.
Bloomberg reported earlier that 791 pilots of Southwest Airlines have agreed to take leave for one to three months.
Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines have all called on the government to provide additional relief measures.
The U.S. Treasury Department began to distribute payroll grants to the airline industry this month, with $15 billion allocated by Congress, benefiting more than 32,000 aviation employees, who will return to work as soon as March 31.
The latest performance shows that the operating conditions of airlines are worrying. United Airlines lost $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 and more than $7 billion for the whole year, the worst performance of the company after its merger with Continental Airlines in 2010.
The company expects revenue to decline by 65%-70% in the first quarter, which is still under great pressure although it improves from previous quarters. The company hopes for the smooth distribution of vaccines for the future market performance development.
At the same time, Delta’s latest performance outlook also shows that the distribution of vaccines is too slow to have a big impact on the predetermined volume for the first quarter.
As the borders of Europe and the United States continue to close, or even tighten control, the recovery that has just begun may occur repeatedly.
Boeing released its fourth quarter financial report for the 27th quarter of 2020.
Revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 was $15.3 billion, lower than the $17.91 billion in the same period in 2019 and lower than market expectations.
The loss in the fiscal quarter was $1.525 billion, compared with a loss of $1.01 billion in the same period the previous year.
The pre-tax expenditure of Boeing’s 777X project is $6.5 billion.
It is expected that the 777X will be delivered for the first time by the end of 2023.
Boeing said that its performance was significantly affected by the epidemic, the grounding of 737 MAX and commercial wide-body airliner projects.
However, Boeing has delivered more than 40 737 MAX aircraft since the Federal Aviation Administration approved the resumption of operations.
