Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said on Tuesday that business travel could take more than five years to return to 2019 levels, as the airline reported its first quarterly loss since 2011 amid an "unprecedented" and "breathtaking" crisis for the global airline industry.
Southwest predicts "no material improvement in air travel trends" this spring, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission, saying it expects revenue to fall as much as 95% in May. It added that it is "unable to reasonably estimate trends beyond May 2020." Airlines and the broader travel industry have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated financial crisis, as shelter-in-place orders, travel restrictions, and corporate travel suspensions have. Customers have also refrained from booking travel in advance due to uncertainty over when restrictions will be loosened, and whether a so-called "second wave" outbreak will force them to be tightened again.
As the industry looks towards ways to convince passengers to fly again, Kelly said the airline would consider options such as leaving empty seats on planes or offering masks to passengers.While analysts and airline officials have suggested that leisure travel may return before corporate travel, Kelly said it was hard to know when an uptick would resume.
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