United Airlines Expects Demand to Remain Suppressed for Remainder of 2020 and Likely into 2021

United Airlines has announced that it will further reduce capacity as it continues to battle what has been described as the biggest challenge the airline has faced in its 94-year history.

This weekend, the airline will load a revamped schedule that will reduce capacity to about 10% of what had been planned for May at the beginning of this year.

The airline expects to make similar reductions to the June schedule, and will make an announcement about that in the next few weeks.

Less than 200,000 people flew with United Airlines during the first two weeks of April, compared to more than 6 million during the same time in 2019, a 97% drop. The airline has said it expects to fly fewer people during the entire month of May 2020 than it did on a single day in May 2019.

A message sent from Oscar Munoz, CEO, and J. Scott Kirby, President, to the nearly 100,000 United Airlines employees on Wednesday, stated that, "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 COVID19 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 finalized changes to our schedule for July and August, we expect demand to remain suppressed for the remainder of 2020 and likely into next year."

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