NewsWhats happening
- Details
Pilots accept lower pay to prevent over 1,700 furloughs as pandemic roils airline industry
Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots agreed to accept reduced pay in exchange for job security until 2022, as the industry continues to grapple with reduced travel demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Delta and the union that represents its pilots said Wednesday that the cost-cutting agreement would prevent the more than 1,700 pilot furloughs the carrier had originally planned. Under the agreement, pilots who would have been furloughed will receive pay for 30 hours a month, though they won’t have to fly. Delta would also be able to reduce pilots’ minimum guaranteed work hours by as much as 5%, which results in lower pay, and the company agreed not to carry out furloughs until Jan. 1, 2022.
“Pilots, as long-term stakeholders in our company, have stepped up to the plate once again to help Delta weather this crisis,” said First Officer Chris Riggins, a spokesman for the union that represents Delta’s pilots.
Airlines have had to shrink to match a diminished outlook for travel demand. The global airline industry is forecast to lose $38.7 billion next year even if Covid-19 vaccines and testing help reopen more borders, the International Air Transport Association said earlier this week.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
- Details
The U.S. on Wednesday approved Boeing Co.’s 737 MAX jets for passenger flights again after dual crashes took 346 lives, issuing a set of long-anticipated safety directives and notices to airlines globally that will help resolve the plane maker’s biggest pre-pandemic crisis.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s official order to release the MAX, grounded since March 2019, came as the Chicago aerospace giant grapples with a host of new problems in the midst of the continuing health crisis.
The FAA’s mandate allows Boeing to resume delivering the jets to airlines and lets them carry passengers, pending completion of certain mandatory fixes and additional pilot training requirements spelled out in related documents also released by the agency. U.S. carriers said Wednesday that they would broadly reintroduce the MAX into their schedules starting early next year, while FAA chief Steve Dickson said he expected approvals from some foreign regulators within days.
But the pandemic has sapped demand for air travel, prompting airlines and aircraft-leasing firms to cancel about 10% of Boeing’s outstanding MAX orders this year. Boeing has said it believes hundreds more of its remaining 4,102 orders could be in jeopardy because of the financial health of some customers.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
- Details
Even after the 737 MAX gets cleared for takeoff, the plane maker will have a hard time delivering it to customers
It seemed difficult to imagine a worse year for Boeing BA 2.80% than 2019—until 2020 came along. What should worry investors now is that the long-awaited 2021 return to grace is slipping away.
On Wednesday, the Chicago-based plane maker reported a $466 million loss for the third quarter. Revenues came in 29% lower due to the Covid-19 crisis, even though the prior-year period was itself badly hit by the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX jet in March 2019. However atrocious, the results were better than analysts were expecting: Boeing stock fell about 3% in afternoon trading, in line with the broader equity market’s poor performance Wednesday.
Like other companies in the aerospace industry, Boeing is taking steps to cut costs to face years of depressed travel demand. It is closing the original 787 Dreamliner assembly line in the Seattle area; the model will only be made in the lower-cost South Carolina plant from mid-2021. And Chief Executive David Calhoun wrote to employees Wednesday that a further 11,000 jobs will be cut by the end of 2021. He also plans to get rid of 30% of office space, echoing what peers such as Raytheon have said.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
- Details
World’s largest plane maker has moved back its narrow body ramp up plans by three months
Airbus stemmed an outflow of cash in the third quarter as it learned to navigate an industry reeling from the pandemic, but also said the aviation market’s recovery would start later than initially forecast.
The world’s largest plane maker posted a positive free cash flow of €600 million, equivalent to $705 million, as it started delivering more planes. Amid a sudden drop in traveler demand, airlines have moved to delay, defer or cancel orders for new jets. Airbus and rival Boeing Co. have reduced production levels to adjust.
However, Airbus was making more planes than it could deliver, hitting cash flow, as airlines typically pay most of the cost of a new jet upon delivery. Airbus still has finished planes awaiting delivery, but the company was able to reduce the number by around 10 aircraft to 135.
Airbus burned through €4.4 billion in each of the first two quarters of the year. It set a target for free cash flow to be at least break even in the fourth quarter, its first guidance since the start of the pandemic.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article