Is This the End of Cheap Airfares?

Automologist MAC paints a bleak picture of future skies…

Now no-one is allowed to fly…

Today’s travel headlines were all about British Airways having to cut some 12,000 jobs due to the impact of Coronavirus. In a statement from the company, they talked about having to re-envision the company for the post-COVID landscape. For a company that is over 100 years old to have to lay off about 25% of its staff, this is a seismic shock to the travel industry.

Of course, the venerable BA is not the only airline company who has problems; across the tarmac at Heathrow, you will find row after row of Virgin Atlantic planes lying idle as international travel has all but stopped due to the Wuhan Flu. Richard Branson, the company’s figurehead, was shot down in a barrage of abuse from netizens when he publicly announced that he would need a government bailout to keep the company going.

A picture is worth a thousand words sometimes.

All around the world, the big carriers like KLM-Air France, Qantas, American, Delta, Lufthansa, Norwegian and Swiss Airlines have all asked for a bailout and loads of others like Philippines Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Garuda are known to be in financial trouble. What is more worrying though is that smaller budget style airlines like Ryan Air, South Western and Easy Jet have also asked for help. These budget airlines are supposed to be better able to survive downturns, but now it looks like so very many of the airlines that have enabled mass tourism on a scale never experienced before will be just more victims of the Wuhan Flu.

I travelled through airports in Asia during the build-up to the Coronavirus pandemic and frankly was shocked at the empty halls and baggage carousels. Mask-wearing and social distancing were already evident in the brave few who still populated the airports. I am looking forward to getting airborne once more in the post-COVID world but what is it going to be like? A long shake-up is in the future that will impact and change just about every aspect of flying and, to start with, things will get a lot more expensive.

Planes lined up at Beijing with nowhere to go….

There will be a lot fewer people travelling in the short- to medium-term. These cathedral-like check-in halls across Asia will be pretty much deserted as lack of cash and fear of infection dent people’s desire to travel. Even if there is a price war in the early stages as airlines try to get the now reclusive public travelling again, there will be a massive reduction in the number of flights to a restricted amount of destinations and this very scarcity will push up the prices. Currently, airlines are running 70% fewer flights.

What else can we expect apart from fewer flights at higher prices? Well, health checks before we go and once we arrive, of course, and fewer freebies and worse inflight food. But worst of all, those wonderfully convenient budget airlines, you know, the sort that if you were smart enough could get you from KL to Bali for US$50 return, will be a thing of the past, at least for the next few years, and thus we will be taking a lot fewer weekend breaks…