During a virtual address to shareholders for the company’s annual shareholders meeting Saturday, the chairman and CEO called Berkshire’s recent purchase of roughly 10% of four of the world's largest airlines — including American , United , Delta and Southwest — an “understandable mistake.”
“But the companies we bought were well managed. They did a lot of things right. It’s a very, very, very difficult business because you’re dealing with millions of people every day and if something goes wrong for 1% of them, they are very unhappy,” Buffett added. Yet fast forward to April 3, the agency scanned 129,763 passengers, and that number continues to decline. Buffett said he doubts whether the flying public, or even himself, will be willing to travel as frequently as they had by plane before the virus outbreak.
While he expressed hope that he could be wrong, Bufftett said the airline business changed in a major way, most obviously in the level of debt the companies will need to carry in order to stay alive.