Travel demand is forecast by United Airlines to be supressed for the rest of the year and “likely” into 2021.
Bosses of the US carrier warned that some international restrictions will remain in place.
Chief executive Oscar Munoz and president Scott Kirby said: “The government funding we expect to receive soon is helpful in the near-term because we can protect our employees in the US from involuntary furloughs and pay rate cuts through the end of September.
“But the challenging economic outlook means we have some tough decisions ahead as we plan for our airline, and our overall workforce, to be smaller than it is today, starting as early as October 1.”
In a message to 100,000 employees, they revealed that less than 200,000 people flew with United in the first two weeks of April, compared to more than six million during the same time last year, a drop of 97%.
“And we expect to fly fewer people during the entire month of May than we did on a single day in May 2019,” they added.
“The historically severe economic impact of this crisis means even when travel demand starts to inch back, it likely will not bounce back quickly.
“We believe that the health concerns about Covid-19 are likely to linger which means even when social distancing measures are relaxed, and businesses and schools start to reopen, life won’t necessarily return to normal.
“For example, not all states and cities are expected to re-open at the same time.
“Some international travel restrictions will remain in place. Meeting planners and tour operators will do their best to accommodate people looking to avoid large crowds.
“So, while we have not yet finalised changes to our schedule for July and August, we expect demand to remain suppressed for the remainder of 2020 and likely into next year.”
United is to receive $5 billion US state aid to help with its payroll costs
But the airline chiefs added: “This government support does not cover our total payroll expense, but we’re keeping our promise that there will be no involuntary furloughs or pay rate cuts for US employees before September 30.
“And, payroll only represents about 30% of our total costs. Fixed operating and non-payroll costs like airport rent, supplies and infrastructure are significant and not going away.
“That’s why we’ve been so aggressive in reducing our schedule, slashing capital expenditures, scaling back our work with vendors and consultants and cutting executive salaries in half.
“We’re planning to go even further to reduce costs. This weekend, we’ll load a revamped schedule that will further reduce our capacity to about 10% of what had been planned for May at the beginning of this year.
“We expect to announce similar reductions to the June schedule in the next few weeks.”
The network is projected to be down 90% while the carrier maintains connectivity among nearly all US domestic destinations.
NThe May and June schedule reductions will have “direct consequences” for frontline staff in terms of total hours worked.