That view was fueled by United Airlines’ notice last week that it could lay off as many as 36,000 employees. United said, in a securities filing, that its bookings leveled off in June and fell significantly in the latter part of the month.
Bastian even said, “I don’t think we will ever get back entirely to where we were in 2019 on the volume of business traffic.”Nevertheless, he said, “I don’t think we are in a permanently depressed business travel for the foreseeable future.” While the number of trips for “road warriors” will decline, certain types of business meetings aimed at luring clients and visiting sites will resume, he said.“We’re talking to our corporates all the time,” Bastian said.
The carrier reported an adjusted pre-tax loss, after Covid-19 related expenses, of $3.9 billion or $4.43 per share, on revenue of $1.5 billion. Analysts had estimated a loss of $4.03 per share. Unadjusted, the loss was $7 billion $9.01 per share.
A few billion well spent
ouch