Thursday 28th of March 2024

sizing down...

travel

Qantas is moving into damage control by slashing seat numbers on international flights and top executives taking pay cuts as it reels from the hit to demand from the global coronavirus outbreak.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce will not take a salary for the remainder of the financial year, his peers will accept similar reductions and Qantas chairman Richard Goyder will take no fees.

Group executive management will take a 30 per cent pay cut and board members will accept a 30 per cent reduction in fees.

At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Mr Joyce said Qantas were not “getting rid” of aircraft or people.

“We’ll have the capability of expanding and growing if the market responds. But we know from previous issues like this, like SARS, that there is a long tail and a slow recovery.

“If it gets worse, we can always bring forward the retirements of aircraft like the 747. We can bring forward the grounding of more of the A380s. We have grounded 10 of the 12 aircraft.

“We could do that if it gets worse. If it gets better, our intention is to put those aircraft back in the air. And we think this will rebound,” he said.

The cuts, announced on Tuesday morning, are on top of reductions already confirmed – and are the equivalent of grounding 38 Qantas and Jetstar planes in Australia and internationally.

 

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/03/10/qantas-flights-cut-c...

way before the coronavirus...

My intention was to write a series of orchestral scenes, in which the solo viola would be involved as a more or less active participant while retaining its own character. By placing it among the poetic memories formed from my wanderings in the Abruzzi, I wanted to make the viola a kind of melancholy dreamer in the manner of Byron's Childe-Harold.

 

                                            Hector Berlioz...

 

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_en_Italie

since the coronavirus...

Virgin Atlantic has confirmed it has been forced to operate some near-empty flights after bookings were dented by the coronavirus outbreak.

It is operating the flights to try to retain take-off and landing slots at major airports such as Heathrow. 

Under European law, if flights are not operated, slots have to be forfeited. 

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has written to the European Commission, asking for rules on slot allocation to be relaxed during the outbreak.

 

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51809318