Cruz speaks: "this is worse than 9/11"
#137
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Based out of MAN; LON/NYC regular
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I think you're giving the US administration too much credit. The governments of the Schengen countries only found about about the first iteration of the travel restrictions when it was announced from the Oval Office...
#138
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
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Also, businesses do not owe us an explanation about their redundancy plans and reasons for implementing them. That's between the employer and the employees.
I am not sure what solution you have in mind for the travel industry in this situation but from where I stand, they are in deep ****. This is why the governments must step in because this is of their own making and they must protect people's livelihoods.
#139
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Mexico
Programs: BAEC Gold / Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,536
Can't see iag going bust. Too much infrastructure and dependence on it. Either government would bail it out or there would a cash injection from a private source. With such enormous potential profit margins, I'm sure some kind of cash rich investor would be willing to snap up cheap shares and keep it afloat.
#140
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: UK
Programs: BA Silver, IHG Platinum
Posts: 935
It is not a downturn. The measures some governments are implementing are dealing death blows to the travel industry. Do not forget that airlines fly almost empty planes during some months without laying off staff because they know that the passengers will come back, the same applies to hotels. There will always be slow periods for the travel industry, and the travel industry have never responded with layoffs for those slow periods. This madness is different though. Airlines won't make people redundant because there is no demand in the next few months, they will do it because they do not see demand long-term. The panic was created, the genie is out of the bottle and there is no putting him back in.
Also, businesses do not owe us an explanation about their redundancy plans and reasons for implementing them. That's between the employer and the employees.
I am not sure what solution you have in mind for the travel industry in this situation but from where I stand, they are in deep ****. This is why the governments must step in because this is of their own making and they must protect people's livelihoods.
Also, businesses do not owe us an explanation about their redundancy plans and reasons for implementing them. That's between the employer and the employees.
I am not sure what solution you have in mind for the travel industry in this situation but from where I stand, they are in deep ****. This is why the governments must step in because this is of their own making and they must protect people's livelihoods.
However, the proof will be in what happens when the measure is relaxed. If the infection rates spike again, then we are ultimately we are all back to square one and thus is going to be a long haul until a vaccine is developed.
If it works, then we are all going to have to take on a dreadfully boring month of house arrest, I think.
The memo my comments referred to was an internal memo and not one issued to the public.
As for the solution, it seems as though some sort of state aid for many industries is inevitable to prevent large-scale job losses and/or economic collapse. The problem is much wider than just the travel industry.
Edited to add: looks like VS think the UK's airline sector needs Ł7.5bn.
Last edited by Bohinjska Bistrica; Mar 14, 2020 at 3:46 pm
#141
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 177
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news....ilout-11957708
Virgin Atlantic boss urges Boris Johnson to sanction Ł7.5bn airline bailout
#142
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 186
Am a weekly Eurocommuter and am working from one of our UK sites instead, expecting at some point that I will have to self-isolate and I would rather be at home than in a hotel. I work for a big corporate and all international travel for critical customer visits (i.e. delivery of contractual requirements) requires an unbelievably high level of signoff. Want to go to a risk zone and you might as well ask for countersignature from the Queen and the Pope on your justification. To be fair most organisations are restricting visitors as well.
People are discovering that the quality of enforced web-based conferencing is pretty good and when business recovers I think there will be a behavioural shift and we won’t have the habit to fly as much as before.
People are discovering that the quality of enforced web-based conferencing is pretty good and when business recovers I think there will be a behavioural shift and we won’t have the habit to fly as much as before.
And whilst there may be many here who won't like that shift, there might be a silver lining there for ’the greater good’.
From a business perspective, companies save money that was spent on travel. And it turns out that many work more effectively sans office politics. Plus I don't know about everyone else here, but I work a few hours longer (the time I’d spend commuting) when I don't have to commute and get more stuff done.
And despite working longer hours, I feel less fatigued (it feels as though I have a better work/life balance). All this only works, of course, if you have all your tech set up at home.
The airline industry will have to re-invent itself. Not sure how though.
#143
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
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And you are absolutely right in saying that the problem is much wider and does not just affect the travel industry. I fear the repeat of 2008-2009 and the job losses across all industries that accompanied those horrible years.
#144
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 186
I'm not sure that sentiment is universal. Yesterday and today, I spent four hours each doing what should have been a day long workshop over teleconference with colleagues in New York and a prospective client in the Far East. The plan was to fly there and do it in person, but obviously that was called off weeks ago. So doing it virtually meant having to split the natural flow into two separate days, and conduct the meetings at unsocial hours, dealing with terrible audio and background noise and people forgetting to mute their microphones when they weren't speaking, and a complete inability to read the body language in the room. Given the amount of money at stake, not spending a few thousand to head out and make a proper meeting of it would have been foolish.
If you're the meeting organiser, you can put everyone else on mute. Questions can be asked at a particular time (won't disturb your flow and you enable their microphones then), etc. I guess kids who are used to playing video games with total strangers will be better at using this technology in future.
#145
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Mexico
Programs: BAEC Gold / Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,536
There's a knack to web-based meetings/workshops. You can't conduct it like a live meeting and you need to change the structure of it all. When done well, it could actually be better than normal workshops/meetings.
If you're the meeting organiser, you can put everyone else on mute. Questions can be asked at a particular time (won't disturb your flow and you enable their microphones then), etc. I guess kids who are used to playing video games with total strangers will be better at using this technology in future.
If you're the meeting organiser, you can put everyone else on mute. Questions can be asked at a particular time (won't disturb your flow and you enable their microphones then), etc. I guess kids who are used to playing video games with total strangers will be better at using this technology in future.
#146
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: UK
Programs: BA Silver, IHG Platinum
Posts: 935
But airlines can see the long-term damage because they see what the bookings are.
And you are absolutely right in saying that the problem is much wider and does not just affect the travel industry. I fear the repeat of 2008-2009 and the job losses across all industries that accompanied those horrible years.
And you are absolutely right in saying that the problem is much wider and does not just affect the travel industry. I fear the repeat of 2008-2009 and the job losses across all industries that accompanied those horrible years.
I sincerely hope it is soon, for the reasons you've highlighted. We all know the short term is bad, but just hope we can avoid a prolonged hit and minimise the damage.
#147
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,059
One thing to see is whether there'll be some governmental help of some sorts. Boris doesn't seem to be too interested/keen (in fairness he hasn't been to keen or interested in wading in a lot of the crises we've seen so far, be it floodings or FlyBe, but maybe IAG will be different).
No one really knows what will happen. I guess government intervention is ok after private sources of funding have been exhausted - but there’s probably still a few of those around. And if government does get involved, there will (/should) be a legal intervention from those behind flybe, as they were sacrificed in the name of ‘free enterprise’.
#148
Join Date: Dec 2018
Programs: BA
Posts: 138
If IAG needs money they should ask the Spanish government...
#149
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Programs: Mucci, BA Gold, TK Elite, HHonors Lifetime Diamond
Posts: 7,683
Something has gone horribly horribly wrong here, and all we can do is accept the consequences of the decisions made. I can more or less see how other industries will return to business as usual at some point, whenever that is, but I fear the implications for the travel industry are much more dire. The worst thing is that it did not have to happen this way.
#150
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 423
How soon do you think they will start to cut back on employee numbers?
Is it fair to assume that they would start with WW and EURO fleet as they are more expensive to employ than mixed fleet?
Is it fair to assume that they would start with WW and EURO fleet as they are more expensive to employ than mixed fleet?