Major carriers have cancelled flights and furloughed staff as passengers stayed home. But Southwest is betting on a rebound, and next year will begin service to Chicago's O'Hare International and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental airports.
But the pandemic makes the move more risky. As Dr. Anthony Fauci famously said,"You don't make the timeline. The virus makes the timeline.""When Southwest publishes its schedule, it risks dollars because it's committed to pay crews and staff the operation," Mann said."If there's a subsequent wave of coronavirus infections, the airline will have under-utilized and unprofitable capacity.
United Airlines fell to a third quarter loss of $1.8 billion from a profit of about $1 billion a year ago as revenue declined 78.12 percent to $2.49 billion from $11.38 billion. On October 14, 717,940 passengers were screened compared with 2,317,763 in 2019. That's a drop of 69.02 percent. Nevertheless, Wall Street believes the industry will rebound as the economy recovers.
In the short-term, airlines have responded to the downturn by cutting fares to win back customers. In the first quarter of 2020, U.S. average ticket price declined to $336, the lowest inflation-adjusted quarterly ticket price reported by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics since 1995.