- Hezbollah chief admits 'unprecedented' blow in device blasts
- Sales of US existing homes slip slightly in August
- Fear, panic haunt Lebanese after devices explode
- Labuschagne sparks Australia fightback in England ODI opener
- S.Africa's HIV research power couple says fight goes on
- Why is Israel focusing on border with Lebanon?
- Mpox vaccines administered in Rwanda, first in Africa
- US Fed rate cut is 'very positive sign' for economy: Yellen
- Unknown Mozart string trio discovered in Germany
- 'Are we five-year-olds?' F1 drivers won't mind their language
- Brazil judge orders X to reimpose block or face hefty fine
- Munich to rename stadium street after Beckenbauer
- Champions Italy to face Argentina in Davis Cup Final 8
- The winding, fitful path to weight loss drug Ozempic
- Italians defeat American Magic to reach Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Norris has 'nothing to lose' as he hunts Verstappen in Singapore
- Kyiv 'outraged' at Swiss showing of Russian war film
- French city renames Abbe Pierre square after abuse claims
- Footballer charged after huge cannabis seizure at UK airport
- Vatican recognises Medjugorje shrine, but not Virgin's messages
- Israel bombs Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon after wave of deadly blasts
- Bank of England freezes rate after jumbo US cut
- Playing Nadal is 'kind of a nightmare', says Alcaraz
- Portugal tackles last of deadly northern forest fires
- Ton-up Ashwin lifts India to 339-6 against Bangladesh
- Departing NATO chief warns US against 'isolationism'
- Coming winter 'sternest test yet' for Ukraine energy grid
- Evacuations as tail of Storm Boris floods northeast Italy
- Lebanon's Hezbollah reeling after second wave of deadly blasts
- Taiwan recognises same-sex marriages between Chinese, Taiwanese
- Stock markets rally after jumbo US rate cut
- Gabon's ousted leader Bongo says renouncing politics for good
- Lebanon device blasts: what we know about deadly attacks
- Equity markets rally after jumbo US rate cut
- Late Harrods owner Al-Fayed accused of rape: BBC
- Hong Kong man sentenced 14 months for wearing 'seditious' T-shirt
- Lebanon's Hezbollah in disarray after second wave of deadly blasts
- Equity markets, yen rally after jumbo US rate cut
- Meta and Spotify blast EU decisions on AI
- Hasan takes three as Bangladesh rattle India in first Test
- Two killed during police operation in New Caledonia
- Flood-hit region leaders to meet in Poland to discuss EU aid
- Sri Lanka to vote in first poll since economic collapse
- Hong Kong probe finds Cathay Airbus defect could cause 'extensive' damage
- AI development cannot be left to market whim, UN experts warn
- All Blacks primed for 'hell' of a Wallabies clash
- Japan firm says no longer makes radio reportedly used in Lebanon blasts
- Zoom fatigue? Try some nature in your background: study
- Boeing to start large-scale furloughs with Seattle strike talks stalled
- Japan walkie-talkie maker says investigating after Lebanon blasts
CMSC | -0.18% | 25.01 | $ | |
BCC | 3.98% | 142.745 | $ | |
AZN | 0.58% | 79.035 | $ | |
SCS | -7.3% | 13.15 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.08% | 25 | $ | |
BP | 2.25% | 33.175 | $ | |
BTI | -0.53% | 37.68 | $ | |
NGG | -2.08% | 68.625 | $ | |
GSK | -1.05% | 41.99 | $ | |
RYCEF | 5.48% | 6.93 | $ | |
JRI | -0.45% | 13.38 | $ | |
BCE | -0.44% | 35.455 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
VOD | -1.78% | 10.051 | $ | |
RIO | 3.84% | 65.425 | $ | |
RELX | 1.25% | 47.97 | $ |
US airlines hopeful for post-Omicron 2022 after Q4 losses
Major US carriers stumbled through another money-losing quarter at the end of the 2021 but remain confident of a travel recovery later in 2022, based in part on hopes that Covid-19 will soon evolve into an ordinary and seasonal virus.
Earnings releases from American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines painted a similar picture of a fourth quarter that began buoyantly amid increasing Covid-19 vaccination levels in the US population, but concluded with a thud as the Omicron wave spread quickly.
The Omicron surge has not only weighed on bookings in early 2022 -- already a seasonally weak period -- but also played a role in the cancelation of nearly 32,000 flights in the United States between Christmas Eve and January 11 as airline employees infected with the virus were unable to work.
While acknowledging that the Covid-19 situation remains fluid, airline executives spoke bullishly about the travel market after February, eyeing a good spring travel season followed by a potentially busy summer.
American Airlines has seen an uptick in reservations beyond the next 60 days, Chief Executive Doug Parker said Thursday on CNBC after the carrier reported a $931 million loss for the fourth quarter and a $2 billion loss for the year.
American "will continue to match its forward capacity with observed booking trends," said the carrier, which plans first-quarter capacity to be down eight to 10 percent compared with 2019 levels.
United Airlines acknowledged that it is beginning 2022 "with a scaled-back schedule" following the latest uptick in virus cases, but will "nimbly ramp up" capacity later in the year, the company said Wednesday.
"While Omicron is impacting near-term demand, we remain optimistic about the spring and excited about the summer and beyond," said United Chief Executive Scott Kirby.
- Covid-19 at 'endemic' stage? -
United reported a fourth-quarter loss of $646 million as it lowered its outlook for 2022 capacity amid a sluggish return in highly profitable business travel.
But the carrier reaffirmed its profit targets for 2023 and beyond.
Kirby is among the executives who have spoken about Covid-19 moving into an "endemic" phase, a view also adopted by Delta Air Lines.
After reporting similar results last week to its two rivals, Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian said "the worst may be behind us" on Omicron and that the broader Covid-19 challenge may be shifting.
"Given the high transmissibility and lower severity of Omicron, this variant is likely to mark the shift in Covid-19 from being a pandemic to a manageable and ordinary seasonal virus which should accelerate the path to a normalized environment," Bastian said.
How Covid-19 will evolve from here remains a matter of uncertainty and debate within the medical community.
"I do think that Omicron likely represents a step towards endemicity because so many people will be infected with Covid and Omicron is basically unavoidable, many people will change the way they think about Covid-19 and risk calculations," Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in an interview.
He added that the latest variant has "accelerated" the discussion on a "post-pandemic" world "in which there is Covid but if you're fully vaccinated, Covid-19 becomes a mild illness for you."
- Possibility of new strains -
But Mark Kline, the chief medical officer at Children's Hospital in New Orleans, told AFP the optimism about Omicron "could be a little bit of wishful thinking."
Kline said that the Covid-19 virus should become less deadly as it evolves. But that does not necessarily mean that the virus has reached that stage yet.
"The flaw in the thinking is if we were only dealing with Omicron, I could buy into that, but it's not going to be Omicron, it'll be something else," said Kline, adding that future strains could resemble the Delta variant or be even more deadly.
Shares of American Airlines dropped 3.2 percent to finish at $16.76, while United Airlines fell 3.4 percent to close at $42.88. Delta, which reported results on January 13, was unchanged at $38.84.
I.Meyer--BTB