Políticas de aviação, o novo Secretário de Transporte dos EUA irá e deve buscar

Ken Quinn:

Yeah. Michael, what do you think about that? Because you were kind of alliances for United. Sara’s also United, a great carrier that is probably well positioned if the laws permit it to acquire companies. And Alliance has kind of tiptoed to the water’s edge and try to do as much as you can without anti-trust immunity and about things that really are seamless and branding. Is it time to use this crisis as an opportunity to fundamentally change the merger outlook for airlines?

Michael Whitaker:

I used to know the answer to that question. I’m not sure I do anymore. When I was at United, I spent a lot of time advocating to remove those restrictions so that the airlines could become like any other business. But I think we’ve already sort of become too big to fail in some respects. So by becoming bigger, I’m not sure that really helps us. And I know that this is sort of a once in a hundred years crisis, but so it was the last one in 2009. And so it was 9/11.

And we’ve been through a number of these once in a hundred years crises in the last 30 years. And every time the airlines have to receive federal aid. So I’m not sure we want to expand the amount of federal aid that we have to pay out in this situation. So I think it’s a worthwhile question to look at, but I’m not sure I come down in a solidly on opening that up as I used to.

Ken Quinn:

Interesting. Sharon, do you have a thought on that? And, Sharon, also I’d like you to address, if you can, the safety side and the certification side. We see IASA perhaps saying we’re going to be putting in the FAA certification under far closer review, given what happened with the 737 MAX. And are you troubled by that development? But tell us first about opportunities for merger and consolidation, and then, if you can…

Sharon Pinkerton:

Yeah. Ken, I think it’s obviously an interesting question from a policy and maybe more of an academic perspective. I mean, the goals of changing foreign ownership are usually spelled out as access to capital. And one thing that I think is very interesting about the way U.S. carriers have handled this crisis is they’ve been very nimble, number one, in cutting costs, but also in accessing capital. Our liquidity right now, we got $65 billion of cash and liquid assets. So access to capital is relatively easy right now, interest rates remain low.

So as a practical matter, it’s just not something carriers are discussing. [crosstalk 00:37:54]. Definitely troubled about that development. And, again, I think we are certainly going to be advocating for this administration to kind of lead and play more of a leading role at IKO and even in bilateral relationships and multilateral relationships with the Europeans, et cetera. We’ve just got to regain our credibility. And I think it can be done.

Ken Quinn:

Sara, when are we getting back to whatever normal is? When are we going to see passenger levels at the pre-pandemic levels?

Sarah Nelson:

Well, I think if you look at 100 years ago, right after the Spanish flu, what happened, the roaring ’20s. What we’re hearing from people is that as soon as they have the safety go ahead, as soon as they have the all clear, they are ready to go. So I think conventional wisdom right now is that we’re hopeful that we’re going to be in a place where we’re starting to get back to that clearance by fall. And we’re going to see that comeback, I think, come roaring back actually very quickly after that.

Ken Quinn:

Well, leisure and on the business, because a lot of people are worried about systemic changes in travel.

Sarah Nelson:

Sure. So on the business side, let’s recognize that business travel usually happens because people want to be together to create those relationships and to really expand their business where we talk about conventions that happen on the business side. None of that has been happening. That will all come back, and that will come back as there’s places to go to.

So we also require the rest of the hospitality and travel industry to be in place as well so that people have something to travel to. It’s all connected. And we’re going to need that all clear on coronavirus in order to fully get that back up and running again. But that’s directly connected to that business travel as well.

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Avatar de Linda Hohnholz, editora da eTN

Linda Hohnholz, editora da eTN

Linda Hohnholz escreve e edita artigos desde o início de sua carreira profissional. Ela aplicou essa paixão inata a lugares como a Hawaii Pacific University, a Chaminade University, o Hawaii Children's Discovery Center e agora o TravelNewsGroup.

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