Delta cuts global capacity by at least 15% on coronavirus impact

Delta Air Lines is cutting global capacity by at least 15% following a drop of more than a quarter in bookings worldwide due to fears of the novel coronavirus.

The SkyTeam Alliance carrier will make the most drastic reductions across the Pacific where capacity will be cut by roughly 65% year-over-year, Delta said in an investor presentation Tuesday. Transatlantic capacity will be reduced by 15-20%, domestic capacity by 10-15%, and Latin America capacity by roughly 5%.

Delta did not provide a timeline for the cuts, though it did say that it was “prepared to take more aggressive actions” through the summer.


American Airlines latest to pare US, international flights as coronavirus hits demand
merican Airlines joined the growing list of carriers to announce schedule cuts as the COVID-19 virus blunts demand for air travel.

American’s biggest cuts will come on its international routes, where the airline said it will trim capacity on its peak summer schedule by 10% as compared to the same time last year. The biggest cuts, unsurprisingly, come on American’s routes across the Pacific. Capacity on those routes is being slashed by 55%, the company said on Tuesday.

The airline also plans to cut flights in the U.S. American said its domestic capacity for April would be cut by 7.5% from its current schedule.

American joins other U.S. carriers such as United and JetBlue in making broad schedule cuts in response to the cornavirus-related drop in demand.

In a statement announcing the cuts, American said it would “decrease frequencies in markets with robust schedule patterns and will cancel routes where customers can be easily reaccommodated.”

With the changes, American also will move to redeploy some of its wide-body aircraft to domestic routes as they’re pulled off international service. This continues a practice that American and other airlines had already started, after flights to China were halted during the initial novel coronavirus outbreak.

American had already pared service to China, Hong Kong and South Korea, but the airline detailed additional markets in the cuts announced Tuesday, some of which were to regions that had previously been mostly unaffected.

With South America, for example, American said its service to Montevideo, Uruguay (MVD), would be suspended during that country’s winter. The carrier’s Miami-Montevideo route now will end in May and resume in December – a move that essentially downgrades that route from year-round to seasonal. Another South America route – Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Santiago, Chile (SCL) – will be suspended through April. American still services Santiago from Miami.

Elsewhere, American is making other changes – including delaying the resumption of seasonal service to European destinations like Barcelona (from Charlotte), Venice (from Chicago) and Rome (from DFW and New York JFK).

In Japan, American will trim capacity by putting smaller jets on its flights to both Tokyo Narita and Tokyo Haneda airports.

American provided the following list of its coronavirus-related schedule changes so far. The list includes both new and previously announced cuts.

New schedule changes include:
Asia
Suspending service to mainland China and Hong Kong (HKG) from Los Angeles (LAX) through the summer.
Suspending service to mainland China from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) through the summer.
Suspending service to HKG from DFW through June. DFW-HKG will resume with a reduced schedule in July.
Extending the suspension of service to Seoul, South Korea (ICN) from DFW into early May.
Flights to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT) and Haneda International Airport (HND) from LAX and DFW will be operated with smaller wide-body aircraft beginning in May.

Europe
Suspending service to Rome (FCO) from Philadelphia (PHL), from now through the end of April.
Extending the suspension of service to Milan (MXP), and suspending flights to FCO from Chicago (ORD) and Charlotte (CLT) through early summer.
Delaying the seasonal resumption of flights to Barcelona (BCN) from CLT and to Venice (VCE) from ORD to early June. Also delaying the seasonal resumption of flights to FCO from New York (JFK) and DFW through the end of April and suspending operation of a second daily flight from DFW to FCO for the summer.
Reducing service to Paris (CDG) and Madrid (MAD) for parts of May and June.

South America
Flights to Montevideo, Uruguay (MVD) from Miami (MIA) will end in May and resuming in December.
Flights to Santiago, Chile (SCL) from DFW will be suspended through April.

All I know is that you need a good travel agent to help you this year.

I know a few hunters who book their own flights, and have had some small glitches in good years. I do not think that doing this on your own without the help of a season professional travel agent is a wise move.

What I understand is that our travel agent is already talking to us about possible flight date changes for our May trip.

All airlines have reduced their capacity to certain destinations.

As a rule, I try to book my flights months in advance, this way if there is any of my flights are affected, I get informed.

And can make other arrangements.

I have flown Delta domestically the last 4 days. The people in the airport have dwindled down dramatically.

Nice to know, but if I’m going to be sick and quarantined, I’d rather be sick and quarantined at home!

Where is your sense of adventure guys?

With Trump cutting off flights between the US and Europe, how will that affect travel from the US to Africa? Through Dubai should be fine, the direct flights to Jo'burg are fine, via London is fine for now (UK is exempted by Trump). But flights through Amsterdam will be affected, and flights through Paris (to West Africa mainly).
This things is really becoming a clusterf*** now.

I've been looking to book a hunt in either RSA or Namibia this year for plains game. I've been sitting on the fence wondering about the danger of being stuck on an airplane with that many other people. I don't have any other "underlying health issues" but at age 73 I'm concerned. Just saw another Dr. on TV who stated that if you're over 60 you fit into the compromised immune system category.

Travel to Africa is certainly getting complicated. I wouldn't be surprised to see airlines start cancelling flights that aren't subject to the latest embargo due to a decrease in demand.

I just booked my return to Namibia flight in April via Qatar Air connecting through Doha. But I am prepared that my return flight to the States in May may be cancelled as COVID-19 will be sweeping through southern Africa soon.

Travel for the next few months is going to be challenging to say the least. Flexibility will be the key if you want to visit Africa this year.

We are booked on Emirates to JNB. We plan to take max ammo (5kg per) for our 2 rifles incase we gut stuck there. Our back up plan is to keep hunting and seeing beautiful country until we can go home should that occur. That is what we did when the hurricane closed florida airports and we had to stay an extra week.

Safe travels

Uganda has restricted visitors from some countries with what it terms high cases of coronavirus, including China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, South Korea, and Spain.

"Government has decided to ask travelers from the affected countries not to come to Uganda because the high cases they are reporting can easily be imported into the country," the country's health minister Jane Ruth Aceng said in a statement earlier this week.

A revised advisory released Wednesday by the Health Ministry increased the number of high-risk countries from 7 to 16, including the United States and the UK. The other countries include the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Malaysia. In the new statement, travelers from these countries are urged to consider "postponing non-essential travel to Uganda."

Aceng said those who insist on visiting the East African nation from these countries would have to self-quarantine at their own cost for 14 days either at home or at a government facility. Ugandans in affected countries are not exempt from the travel restriction.

Uganda also postponed the 2020 United Nations G77 and China Summit scheduled for mid-April in the capital of Kampala due to the coronavirus threat, the minister said.

More than 6,000 delegates from 136 member states were due to attend.

Rwanda Air, Kenya Airways and Morocco's Royal Air Maroc are among some African airlines that have suspended flights to China. Ethiopian Airlines, however, tweeted that it will keep operating flights to China while adhering to international standards to ensure the safety of its passengers.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I have flown Delta domestically the last 4 days. The people in the airport have dwindled down dramatically.

I was supposed to fly to Atlanta on Thursday, but my customer said they are cancelling the meeting since some of their employees were flying to Atlanta.

This is going to cause a global recession unless things improve drastically in the near future.

Could be the GFC all over again in terms of discounted hunt prices, but complicated by the fact travel is so uncertain.

I did 18 legs (flights) from Feb 3rd through Mar 11th, I'm glad to have a break with my company's travel freeze.

For vacations, etc. I book my flights 6-11 months in advance and so far this hasn't affected me.

I have a holiday in Ireland planned for mid May so hopefully all this hysteria will be done with by then.