2020

The latest scheduled airline capacity data from OAG shows capacity growth is in full swing. By September and October 2020, capacity had recovered 41% and 47%, respectively, of the 2019 level, up from closer to just 26% back in May. By the second week of November this has edged up to 55%.

The Latin America seat capacity market bottomed out the week of April 27th, 2020 when 184K seat were added to the market but twice as many seats were taken out the following week which showed the fragile environment that airlines were operating in by then.

The drastic fall in passenger volume is having a major impact on airlines, airports, and air transportation suppliers. Landing fees, improvement and passenger facility fees as well as other aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues are the main source of income for airports. For the past few months, airports have been operating near a zero-revenue environment that has negatively impacted the ability to generate cash and preserve liquidity.

Three months after declaring bankruptcy, it is promising that LATAM Airlines (“LATAM”) has already secured US$2.2B in committed financing for restructuring as the company aims to reorganize its network, fleet plan and debt. According to its filing for bankruptcy on May 25, 2020, the airline had $1.3B in cash, accounts receivable and lines of credit according to its financial statements.

Is this the end of life as we know it?

Unlike most of the other countries in Latin America, with the exception of Brazil, the Mexican government has not imposed a lockdown. This article reviews the performance of Mexican domestic airline operations in the first half of 2020 to ascertain how the industry is performing and to identify potential first mover advantage in a domestic-led aviation recovery.

Since the end of March we’ve been running webinars with OAG, taking the temperature of an industry beaten down by the COVID19 pandemic and trying to make sense of what is happening around us. We’ve spoken to airlines, airports, consultants, industry data gurus, aviation lawyers and finance specialists and answered hundreds of questions from the industry about how we navigate through this crisis.

The last few months have proven just how challenging the aviation industry can be; an industry expecting some US$313 Billion less revenue than last year is in trouble.

COVID-19 changes everything – or does it?

Today UK consumer watchdog Which? reported that they had asked the UK’s top 10 package holiday providers and the Top 10 airlines to explain their policy on refunds. According to Which? not one was consistently meeting their legal requirements to refund customers within the statutory timeframe.

It’s the aviation industry’s “Big C”. Coronavirus, or to give it its official title, COVID-19, has the potential to have the same impact on airlines as it is having on mankind.

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My friend Angela started running a number of years ago and is now obsessed: she’s up at 5:30am to get a decent run in before work. She’s now taken part in numerous marathons and has even run the famous Comrades Marathon, twice. Dubbed the ‘ultimate human race’, it’s a gruelling 89 kilometer run in South Africa and the first ultramarathon. Hero or mad woman?

Aviation loves a high-profile visit and the accompanying photo-opportunity. A pint of warm beer seals a new Manchester – Beijing service; a duck pizza brings a new service from Italy to China we all know the score;; hugs and kisses and along comes an A350 or B787 to cement a new trade agreement.

More than just a series of trade-routes along the old Silk Road, China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) is a monumental project in political-economic relations and Soft Power. In facilitating greater ease of resource and capital movements within the region, whilst enhancing local infrastructure along the way, China can lay claim to having helped generate otherwise inaccessible economic growth in several BRI member countries.