Big Schedule Cuts for Emirates, United and Southwest
Airlines around the world have been cutting back their schedules due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the latest cuts in recent days are from Emirates, United and Southwest Airlines.
Emirates first announced on Sunday that it will temporarily suspend all passenger operations by March 25. The airline then quickly backtracked to cancelling just “most” international flights. The expeditions include Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, and USA.
United also announced drastic cuts in international flights, just to backtrack some it later on. The airlines said it is cutting its international travel schedule by 95% for the month of April. That would spare just a handful of flights in Mexico and Guam. It reversed its decision later in the day saying it will continue to operate flights to Frankfurt, London, Tel Aviv, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, and Sydney on a daily basis through May.
Southwest Airlines is also scaling back. The airline says it is cutting 1,000 daily flights and halting all international routes due to decreased demand. These schedule modifications account for about 25% of its nearly 4,000 daily flights, and will remain in place until April 14. Southwest had previously said that it would cut 20% of its flights from April 14th through June 5th.
We should see more of these announcement in coming days. Really any schedule and policy published this year by airlines has changed soon after.
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