Airlines – Coronavirus and Fleet

December 2, 2020 the world we know finds itself still struggling with the coronavirus. Vietnam recently became the next to sound the alarms as a local transmission reported after 89 days of clear and free of Covid19. Sunday 22 November Shanghai Pudong International airport became a center of panic and chaos. Why, because a few cargo ramp employees tested positive at the airport. Even cargo operations came to a standstill that day. Since then the airport is operating. Back here is the states Los Angeles and parts of California being close to calling a mandatory stay at home order. This is if they cannot get to grips of huge surge overwhelming hospitals. This too can put the brakes on airport and airline travel in that region. Airline Adviser was going to phase 3 December 3, 2020 yet we too have paused until January 4, 2021. Until then we operate under our version of phase 2.  

Airlines are looking to congress for more relief as too are many others. Summer months were projecting better days ahead until this second wave came through. Good news is there is a vaccine on the horizon and hopefully in the early months of 2021 will eventually be available to millions of people not just military, medical staff, hospitals and first responders. The other huge obstacle is not so much an obstacle just logistical is distributing by air to locations. First airline to do that recently reported United Airlines charter flight.

Many airlines at the beginning of the global pandemic switched to flying Cargo flights even on the earlier days of 2020. They were strapping cargo into seats on what would normally be a commercial flight. Even American Airlines flew its first all-cargo flight in its commercial airline history this year. Singapore Airlines is rapidly converting some Boeing 767 aircraft into cargo configuration. Boeing has opened its second conversion facility in Singapore at ST Engineering facility. Thus, making the Boeing 767 -300 into a BCF.

Many airlines have grounded their fleet around the world and for many during the financial restrains could be the end of the line for that particular airline, It could also be the end of the line of that particular aircraft forever. Some airlines are merely mothballing their fleets of be it Airbus A380 or Boeing 777 aircraft for example. This is where we come in at Airline Adviser in 2021 and years ahead. For airlines and fleet worldwide, it has excelled the rate of retirement of certain aircraft makes and models. One airline, Emirates plans on returning some of its A380 aircraft out of storage in 2022. Focusing on the future are airlines and one by one will make their own decision on what coronavirus has left them and the fleet they intend to operate if they are the airline still flying.

Source Airline Adviser 12/02/20