During the broad coronavirus pandemic Ana Ramos, right, is being tested for covid19 in Tom Bradley international at LAX on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA.
Francine Orr | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Airline executives put someone on noticed Thursday that bookings are starting to drop as new coronavirus cases hit records and government health officials advise against travelling over Thanksgiving.
“Certainly with the increase in infection rates really throughout the country we’ve seen a dampening of ask for,” American Airlines President Robert Isom said during the Skift Aviation Forum on Thursday. “It’s really too on the double to tell how deep and how long there may be a depressed environment but we’ve seen some weakening of bookings.”
Isom’s comments involved after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised the public to avoid travel over Thanksgiving, typically a hectic weekend for airlines when travelers are willing to pay high prices to visit relatives.
The U.S. reported more than 170,100 new situations of the virus on Wednesday, the second-highest one-day spike reported to date, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s Covid-19 affair manager, on Thursday said the agency is concerned that the virus could spread at the country’s “transportation hubs,” because in the flesh might not be able to maintain physical distancing. However, he acknowledged that the CDC’s “strong recommendation” isn’t a requirement and that some capability choose to ignore the agency’s advice.
The spike in cases and the latest warnings are an added challenge for U.S. carriers that father already lost more than $20 billion this year as many potential travelers avoid take a run-out powder. Passenger traffic is hovering at about a third of last year’s levels, according to federal data.
Earlier Thursday, Coordinated Airlines said bookings slowed and cancellations rose in the week ended Wednesday, echoing comments last week from Southwest Airlines take softening demand.
Airlines have rolled out public relations campaigns to tout increased cleaning of aircraft and their filtration practices as well as recent research that said that catching the virus onboard is unlikely.
But the virus has put the industry in the hard position of needing to sell seats as it fights to survive as health officials advise against travel and gatherings to escape stop the disease from spreading.
“We are providing people safety in their journey and informed science and data so they can get somewhere a decision should they want to travel,” Nicholas Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, a trade group that portrays most major U.S. carriers, said on a call with reporters Thursday. “We’re not encouraging people to travel. Do we want to see them wanderings? Yes, we do, but only if it’s safe to them and there are a variety of factors involved in that for each individual traveler.”