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Coronavirus and the current state of the airline industry

nush

Gold Member


Although traveling especially by air is not on many peoples minds right now here is a detailed look at the current state of the airline industry globally. What's happening right now is a bigger event than closing US airspace during 9/11. With a lot of airlines running on a knife edge of profitability during normal business conditions with all these grounded aircraft I can see a lot of these airlines may not even exist when this outbreak is over. Its crazy to see how clear the skies are and how many aircraft are just stacked up on runways unused.
 

darkinstinct

...lacks reading comprehension.
And most of them aren't even paid. Leases everywhere. Worse, it might take ages to return to where we were, if we even ever do. A lot of countries will require mandatory 7 to 14 day quarantines for visitors from other countries for a long time, because they can't risk it starting again. That kills basically all business or vacation trips by plane.
 

nush

Gold Member
A lot of countries will require mandatory 7 to 14 day quarantines for visitors from other countries for a long time, because they can't risk it starting again. That kills basically all business or vacation trips by plane.

That's definitely something to consider. Air travel could be pushed once again out of the reach of the average person to be an expensive premium travel option reserved for those only with time/money. I've got a feeling the the infrastructure and investment in air travel will win out over public health safety. It's really interesting times.
 

JordanN

Banned
You know, the airline industry might not have to die. You know what they could do?

Instead of a fleet of airplanes, they should focus on domestic travel. A few years ago, Dubai was going to be the first city to launch flying cars. I would love it if the rest of the world caught suit.

Regarding international travel? That could wait until we do have technology to drive these cars around the world.

 

JordanN

Banned
You can't even trust people to pull out of thier driveway safely on an empty street, yet alone give them flying bombs.
Lol, I remember back in 2009, I did a High School project on this and one of the first things to come up was "but what if people deliberately crash them"?

Well, the solution I came up with back then was either make it auto-pilot or restrict air travel to certain areas. So no, you can't actually drive your flying car around skyscrapers, although the same rules apply with airplanes.
 

caffeware

Banned
You know, the airline industry might not have to die. You know what they could do?

Instead of a fleet of airplanes, they should focus on domestic travel. A few years ago, Dubai was going to be the first city to launch flying cars. I would love it if the rest of the world caught suit.

Regarding international travel? That could wait until we do have technology to drive these cars around the world.


tenor.gif
 

cryptoadam

Banned
Going to be years before people start travelling internationally. Imagine being stuck somewhere with another outbreak going on and borders close again.

The tourism business is going to be fucked for a while. Hotels cruises airlines etc... but big money chance for Recall and memory implants. Just dont chose the secret agent on mars package its been known to lead to lobotomy.
 

NecrosaroIII

Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
I work in air freight. We use commercial planes to transport cargo. Every day there are less and less flights. I heard that some airlines are starting to convert passenger craft to fly entirely just as cargo planes though. So that is hopeful for some airlines.
 
I was dumb and took the voucher option rather than just a refund when BA cancelled my April flight. I expect prices to be £££££ once the planes are back up and running just to compensate.
 

nush

Gold Member
. I heard that some airlines are starting to convert passenger craft to fly entirely just as cargo planes though. So that is hopeful for some airlines.

Part of the video shows this, freight packed into the passenger cabin on the seats and in the overhead bins. Looks crazy.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
This is going to be terrible, because lot's of airplanes are on the lease, so that means Airlines bleeds money. Only one, who is probably happy about this, is Boeing. Since world forgets about MAX fiasco and they can quietly test they imrpoved design.

Besides that, retrofitted DC-8 with CFM56 engines is thing of beauty : )
Also holy shit at that A350 take-off shot.
 
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DrAspirino

Banned
You know, the airline industry might not have to die. You know what they could do?

Instead of a fleet of airplanes, they should focus on domestic travel. A few years ago, Dubai was going to be the first city to launch flying cars. I would love it if the rest of the world caught suit.

Regarding international travel? That could wait until we do have technology to drive these cars around the world.


Exactly my thought. Sure, we would be kind of isolated from other parts of the world, BUT we would have more planes available for domestic travel, effectively keeping the costs down (at least on domestic routes). Europe wouldn't be much benefited from this, but USA, Canada, countries in South America and Australia/NZ, China and Russia would see a surge in domestic flights (since those territories are so vast that land travel is impractical).
 
In my opinion, one of the best things for everyone's well-being would be the expansion of the globe. The world has shrunk drastically since the industrial revolution. But among the costs there has been rampant pollution, homogenization of culture/business, and a frantic pace of life.

I'm certainly biased, but if this virus got everything (and everyone) to slow down drastically, and live more locally, I would be more than ok with that.

RERDP9.gif
 

GHG

Gold Member
In my opinion, one of the best things for everyone's well-being would be the expansion of the globe. The world has shrunk drastically since the industrial revolution. But among the costs there has been rampant pollution, homogenization of culture/business, and a frantic pace of life.

I'm certainly biased, but if this virus got everything (and everyone) to slow down drastically, and live more locally, I would be more than ok with that.

RERDP9.gif

With how connected we've become with the internet I doubt we will ever see a return of businesses becoming more local.

What it will most likely lead to is more people thinking twice about doing 24/48 hour round trips to foreign destinations when everything can be sorted via a video conference call. It will take a while for everyone to get used to the whole video chat thing (especially the older generation), but this whole requirement of "meeting in person" in order to do business or get sign off on things will die out.

People have already been forced to change their ways in the last few weeks regardless so it's proof of concept shit can still get done without all the pointless flying and business lunches/dinners.

Oh and exhibitions and the like? They're dead Jim.
 
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JORMBO

Darkness no more
Going to be years before people start travelling internationally. Imagine being stuck somewhere with another outbreak going on and borders close again.

The tourism business is going to be fucked for a while. Hotels cruises airlines etc... but big money chance for Recall and memory implants. Just dont chose the secret agent on mars package its been known to lead to lobotomy.

That's a good point. I was going to plan a trip to another country for next year. I've never traveled outside of the US. After hearing all these stories of people getting stuck I'll probably just travel somewhere in the US next year instead and wait a bit on my international trip.
 

Porcile

Member
So shut down for a month and you're completely fucked, great. Even if there wasn't a virus it's obviously completely unsustainable and all these companies were one crisis away from financial ruin anyway.
 

cryptoadam

Banned
Thought it was annoying taking your shoes off when you travel. Wait till the body temp scan. And then when they find out Corona is passed through farts its time for the finger test.

No one is going to be going anywhere without a full on medical clearance, temp check, and probably signing some waiver where you can be forcefully quarantined and any moment and there is nothing your home country can do about it. Basically you get on a plane and you sign your rights away.
 

Batiman

Banned
This shit has me paranoid to fly again for a while. Sucks because I was planning a trip to Jamaica this year.
 

Dirac1992

Neo Member
I am from Mexico and I was 15 days shy from starting my PhD in Australia. Now I don't know when I will be able to do that, and really sucks a lot.
 

nush

Gold Member


Here's another video on how fuuucked the airline industry is at the moment. How many are even going to exist post lockdown?
 

NecrosaroIII

Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
It's getting shittier and shittier to work. Today I had a shipment I basically couldn't route. Seattle to Houston. Should have been a gimmie. Now it's going on a flight tomorrow. We won't be able to recover it until Saturday due to reduced cargo facility hours.
 

nush

Gold Member
It's getting shittier and shittier to work. Today I had a shipment I basically couldn't route. Seattle to Houston. Should have been a gimmie. Now it's going on a flight tomorrow. We won't be able to recover it until Saturday due to reduced cargo facility hours.
It's going to be a long time until things ever get back to normal, can you imagine the freight that is backed up in various warehouses right now?
 

Grinchy

Banned
This sucks because passenger aircraft are used to disperse the chemtrails in the air that makes frogs gay. Now we're just gonna be stuck with a bunch of straight frogs.
 
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