Europe's airlines formulate political demands before Germany takes over the EU Council Presidency. But first they struggle with the consequences of the corona virus - and they are enormous.
Brussels (dpa) - The rapid spread of the new corona virus has unforeseeable consequences for Europe's airlines. Several airline bosses reported a sharp drop in booking numbers at an industry meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.
"It is clear that we cannot yet see the full impact of Covid-19," said Air France KLM board member Benjamin Smith, who also chairs the Airlines for Europe (A4E) association.
Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr said "the situation is very dynamic". At the moment, 23 out of 200 long-haul aircraft were left on the ground due to the virus crisis. "The prospects depend very much on developments in Europe over the next few days," said Spohr of the German Press Agency. It will only be possible to say more in two weeks. The Group currently expects to reduce its short and medium-haul routes by 25 percent in the next few weeks. In Italy it was more than a third. Lufthansa has already announced an austerity program for the corona virus.
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary expects very weak demand "in the next two or three weeks". If the wave of infections did not intensify, people would eventually have enough of the warnings: In June and July, "the panic level will decrease," was O'Leary's forecast. The chief of the International Airlines Group with British Airways and Iberia, Willie Walsh, spoke of a "significant drop in demand in Asia". It was "too early to say where this will lead".
The "exceptional circumstances" of the coronavirus situation also showed that Europe's passenger rights policy must change quickly, said A4E managing director Thomas Reynaert. Even with the targeted EU rules for compensation for flight delays and cancellations, airlines were spurred on to get their passengers to their destination as quickly as possible.
The association and the airline bosses also asked politicians to help the industry switch to more environmentally friendly operations. "It's scandalous that we're flying in European airspace like we did 40 years ago," said Walsh. "We cannot fly our machines as efficiently as possible." Walsh said that if airspace were used better, 25 million tons of carbon dioxide would be saved in Europe each year.
Lufthansa CEO Spohr said the German government had promised to make more efficient control of European airspace a priority of the German EU Council Presidency in the second half of the year. Europe must also invest more in the production of renewable fuels. These are still very rare and four to five times more expensive than fossil fuels, said Spohr. Air traffic tax revenue should be invested in this area.
