American Airlines has now lost more than $4 billion in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic continues to suppress air travel.
The carrier reported this week a $2.1 billion loss for the second quarter of 2020. That follows a $2.2 billion loss in the first quarter.
Chairman and CEO Doug Parker told investors the airline started seeing its daily cash burn rate decrease through April, May and June, however, as bookings started to pick up.
"Now, this rate of improvement’s going to slow as we head into a seasonally softer travel season and certainly as demand growth has plateaued of late due to increasing infection rates in state and city quarantine restrictions," Parker said. "We’ve modified our schedules accordingly, and we now expect our third quarter system capacity to be down approximately 60% year over year."
American sent letters warning of fall furloughs and layoffs to 25,000 workers earlier this month, including more than 1,000 in Tulsa. Parker said American and its workers’ union have continued talks about voluntary leave and early retirement packages.
"There’s also an effort underway by our union partners to extend the current payroll support program into 2021. We’re proud to support this union-led initiative as we believe our entire industry has a shared goal of keeping hard-working frontline team members employed," Parker said.
American is receiving nearly $6 billion dollars in total payroll support from the federal government.
