The drop in business the US airline industry has experienced over the coronavirus outbreak “is probably worse” than the downturn that happened after 9/11, JetBlue’s CEO said in a new interview.
In a Wednesday appearance on “CBS This Morning,” Robin Hayes called the impact of the deadly bug on the industry “devastating,” with company shares dropping 20 percent since the first confirmed coronavirus case in the US.
“I mean, our January and February was really good, and we started seeing the impact around Feb. 25,” Hayes said. “In the US industry, we saw about a 30 percent drop off in traffic around 9/11. This is probably even worse than that.”
Revenue losses for the global passenger air business could total $113 billion, or 19 percent, if the outbreak gets worse, the International Air Transport Association said last week.
“This is the sort of event in the airline industry we only tend to see about once every 10 years,” Hayes said on the program.
The CEO attempted to assuage public concerns about flying amid the global outbreak — insisting that getting on a plane is “as safe as everything else you do in your daily life.”
“We’ve done a number of things,” he said of JetBlue’s measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “First of all, we are deep cleaning and sanitizing and disinfecting our airplanes every night. In addition, we have wipes on board so customers can come on and can wipe down their seat if they want to sort of take some additional precautions.”
Hayes also said he wanted to “dispel a few myths” about the quality of air passengers breathe in on longer flights.
“The way the air systems work is the air tends to come in the top of the airplane, and it comes down and comes out of the bottom,” he said. “Air is recycled on average every three minutes in the cabin.”
He explained that JetBlue used hospital-grade, mechanical HEPA filters that capture particles with what he called 99.99 percent efficiency.
“The air is better than most places that you would spend every day,” he said.
Hayes said he has “one urgent ask” for the Trump administration as the airline industry grapples with the outbreak.
At large, congested airports like JFK and LaGuardia, airlines are mandated to use their “slots” a certain amount of times per season or risk losing them.
“No one wants to lose these slots,” Hayes said. “We’ve seen this issue in Europe until they changed it a few days ago, where airlines were flying on empty planes. By the way, [it’s] crazy for the environment as well.”
“And that situation is going to happen here in the US if the government doesn’t act,” he said, but added that he is confident the administration will step in.
Passenger safety, Hayes said, remains the top priority.
“On safety, the US airlines don’t compete,” he said on the program. “We’re all in this together, and we all want to make sure that we are taking care of our customers through this time where there is so much fear and concern out there.”
"impact" - Google News
March 12, 2020 at 09:20PM
https://ift.tt/2IT0jtz
Coronavirus impact on flights is 'probably worse' than after 9/11: JetBlue CEO - New York Post
"impact" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2RIFll8
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus impact on flights is 'probably worse' than after 9/11: JetBlue CEO - New York Post"
Post a Comment