Posted on 04/16/2020 12:09:27 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Thursday related to the global economy
SEATBELTS FASTENED: The U.S. is offering airlines a $25 billion aid package, but damage to the sector will be extensive and long-lasting. Industry analysts say it could be five years before the industry fully recovers.
— United Airlines’ flight schedule will be cut to 10% in May and it expects more of the same in June. In a letter to employees, CEO Oscar Munoz wrote that travel demand is “essentially zero and shows no sign of improving in the near-term...We expect to fly fewer people during the entire month of May than we did on a single day in May 2019.”. Job cuts at the airline, though prohibited through September under strings tied to the aid package, are likely in the fall.
— At American Airlines 32,000 workers have volunteered for early retirement or leave at reduced pay. American started the year with about 133,000 employees.
SERVICE POSTPONED: The service sector — gyms, hotels and retail stores — relies on human contact, and it may have been changed forever by the outbreak.
— J.C. Penney is postponing $12 million in interest payment. The company has a 30-day grace period before it is considered in default on the 2036 senior notes.
— Hilton has suspended operations at almost 1,000 hotels globally, or 16% of them. That includes 12% of hotels in the Americas, 60% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 15% in Asia. The company has seen some recovery in China, where all but 20 of the 150 hotels that closed there have reopened. Hilton expects revenue per available room to fall nearly 25% in the first quarter.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
— More than 30,000 people have registered for special flights that will bring them from Romania to Germany to help with the harvest season, budget airline Eurowings said. German farms rely heavily on Eastern European laborers for sowing, planting and harvesting crops.
— Italy’s severely ravaged region of Lombardy is pushing to relaunch manufacturing on May 4, the day that the national lockdown is set to lift. Lombardy’s plan focuses on maintaining a one-meter distance between workers, mandating the use of masks, mobile working where possible and the use of antibody blood testing, which is set to launch in the region on April 21.
SALES SLIDE: Figures release by the U.S. this week revealed a retail sector staring down a crisis. See-and-be-seen is from another era, one without face masks and home confinement. Even if you can afford luxury goods, your not likely to be buying it now.
— Sales fell 4.8% at the cosmetics giant L’Oreal in the first quarter, though online sales increased 52%. The company said Thursday there were sharp sales drops in luxury cosmetics and professional hair products as department stores, hair salons shuttered across continents.
— Global sales tumbled 15% for luxury group LVMH in the first quarter. More people are drinking at home, but they’re not opening bottles of LVMH Moet & Chandon Champagne, or its Vuitton handbags or Dior perfumes. It has begun to produce hand sanitizer and has financed millions of masks for French medical personnel.
— The market for used cars, trucks and SUVs in the U.S. has evaporated. Cox Automotive estimates that retail used vehicle sales fell 59% last week compared with a year ago. Sales at Cox’s Manheim used vehicle auction houses, where dealers get their supplies, tumbled 75%. New vehicle sales slumped 38% in March.
LATTE AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL: For the first time since going drive-thru only on March 20, Starbucks is looking at a very gradual expansion of service. CEO Kevin Johnson said in a letter to employees Thursday that decisions to expand service using contactless pickup and delivery or to-go ordering would be made on a store-by-store basis.
Gotta look at the bright side. You can now fly round trip to Hawaii 1st class for $8!
The Democrats and their media created the panic and are reveling in its effects. TWO MORE WEEKS, PEOPLE!!!!
Might never get “back to normal,” sadly.....
I have a suspicion that a society where people on welfare and Medicaid can travel all over the place regularly on vacation never should have been considered "normal" by any stretch.
I see $38. Where did you spot $8? Wow...tempting. I guess I could sleep on the beach when I got there.
Airlines are going to have to refit planes with fewer, wider seats - affording more legroom. No more cattle cars.
“Gotta look at the bright side. You can now fly round trip to Hawaii 1st class for $8!”
—
On the other hand, tons of people are still coming in non-stop from who knows where and in what shape.
I’m sure people in the Depression and in WW II also thought things would never get back to “normal.” Maybe if “normal” was the go-go 1920s and “normal” didn’t return until the 1950s you could say it takes 30 years. But that was a double-whammy, Depression AND WW II.
Of course, we could be on the brink of a major depression today.
Maybe the airlines would do better if they stopped body searching people, squeezing them in like sardines, refusing to let them bring 1,001 things and generally stopped being fascist assholes.
I have no sympathy at ALL of the airline industry.
Two seat on each side with clear plastic curtains that wrap around the seats.
“You can now fly round trip to Hawaii 1st class for $8!”
—
Yep,and spend 2 weeks in paradise-—quarantined.:-)
.
My Wife flew from Portland OR to Houston TX last Saturday on a 737-900. The same Flight was cancelled the week before.
There were only 20 People on the Flight.
When I Flew from Orange County CA to Seattle on Sept. 11, 2002 there were only 13 Passengers on the Plane. Somehow my Luggage ended up in Denver CO.
“I have no sympathy at ALL of the airline industry.”
^^^^
Make that FOR the airline industry. My fingers are working faster than my brain today (no cracks!). :-)
And remove every other row. Plus each person gets a private oxygen bottle for the duration of the flight.
Coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed.
Ih, no, that would be the stupid, braindead, unprecedented reaction to a flu bug.
You’re assuming our benevolent overlords will actually ALLOW you to go there...
“The service sector — gyms, hotels and retail stores — relies on human contact, and it may have been changed forever by the outbreak.”
Changed forever... please. s/
“Gotta look at the bright side. You can now fly round trip to Hawaii 1st class for $8!”
You have to have to have your temperature taken rectally before boarding.
“changed forever”
I know — what ignorant claptrap. Probably written by a millennial who thinks “ancient history” is last night’s dinner.
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