Talks between airlines and government “ongoing”

Talks between airlines and government

The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) released a statement on Wednesday concerning talks between airlines and the government as the COVID-19 outbreak escalates.

“Talks are ongoing with airlines and the Government to look at how best to support the aviation industry though the current coronavirus crisis,” the BALPA said in a statement.

It continued to add that claims that the government is not going to support the aviation industry are “misleading”.

Instead, the BALPA emphasised that discussions concerning unique measures for individual airlines are “ongoing”.

The aviation industry is one to have been hit particularly hard in recent weeks as many countries have imposed travel restrictions in order to contain the spread of the illness.

Italy, Europe’s worst-affected country, was put on lockdown two weeks ago.

This lead to Ryanair (LON:RYA) lowering its passenger target for 2020 as flights to and from Italy were suspended.

Last week, Ryanair noted that “Italy, Malta, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Norway and Cyprus have imposed flight bans of varying degrees”.

With travel bans of this scale occurring, it is no wonder the aviation industry has been hit particularly hard by the spread of the illness.

Elsewhere in the industry, Flybe (LON:FLYB) collapsed, with the immediate crash of the airline blamed on COVID-19 related impacts.

“I’ve said before that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution, due to the different structures and needs of each airline,” the BALPA General Secretary, Brian Strutton, said.

“Each airline will need to be reviewed to ensure a good use of taxpayers money. The Government will be looking at areas such as the airline’s financial state, whether it could raise the cash in other ways, or if it’s crucial to the UK transport system. These deliberations still are ongoing so we should await the outcomes,” Brian Strutton added.

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