COVID-19

Welcome to Routes’ weekly look at how the Middle East and African aviation markets are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, helping you understand the schedule changes and manage the impact so we can navigate through this crisis together.

Airliners have the electrical, oxygen and airflow systems installed that could make them cost-effective temporary hospitals.

Routes' latest update on how airlines and airports across the Middle East and Africa are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Citing the bankruptcy of the OneWeb satellite communications company, the U.S. government should consider adding $2.5 billion in funding for space programs, along with multiple policy proposals to maintain the military space industrial base and U.S. strategic dominance in the domain in the face of threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, an industry trade group recommends.

With so much going on within the aviation sector we want to know your views on the key topics and stories.

Encumbered by a poor fourth quarter, independent Chinese carrier Juneyao Airlines saw its 2019 total net profit slide 19.3% year-on-year (YOY) to CNY994.5 million ($142.3 million).

At Gulfstream Aerospace, most manufacturing, service and flight test facilities at its headquarters in Savannah, Georgia, have remained operational through the COVID-19 outbreak, as the business is considered critical by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber & Industrial Security Agency.

The U.S. Treasury Department wants airlines to repay close to a third of the value of payroll assistance received under the Coronavirus Aid, Recovery, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—and carriers are not happy about it.

CPI Aerostructures announced April 13 that it closed on a $4.8 million loan under the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) as part of the new Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in the U.S.

Israel-based defense contractor Elbit Systems, which has a major U.S. subsidiary, acknowledged issues in its operations on April 13 and said it started carrying out unspecified “cost-control measures to help limit the financial impact on the company.”

A Lockheed Martin employee working at the Fort Worth facility where the F-35 is assembled died several days after informing the company he felt ill with COVID-19-like symptoms, Lockheed said on April 13.

JUNEYAO AIRLINES reduced planned CAPEX for 2020 by 91% to $200m and will now acquire only nine aircraft (seven A320s/two 787s); it also trimmed budget

PGL (owns LOT Polish Airlines) dropped plan to acquire CONDOR, Germany due to COVID-19 crisis (SPNWS; January 31).

TRANSDIGM GROUP is proposing private offering of $400m in senior secured notes (on top of $4b previously issued) to further increase its liquidity

SWEDEN received EC approval for €455m loan guarantee scheme to support airlines affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

AIR CANADA is reconfiguring three 777-300ERs to transport cargo in pax cabin; modified aircraft can carry 89.63 tonnes.

TRIUMPH GROUP is furloughing 2,300 employees in US and Europe to reduce capacity associated with Boeing Commercial Aircraft programs; it says all but

Aerospace supplier Woodward is cutting the equivalent of 15% of its full-time workforce through the year as the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects ripple through the aerospace supply chain, the company quietly disclosed April 10.

BOEING last week delivered its first set of 2,300 reusable 3D-printed face shields being produced in partnership with suppliers SOLVAY and TRELLEBORG

The USS Gerald R. Ford conducted its first-ever fleet replacement squadron carrier qualifications for sailors and Marines while underway in the Atlantic Ocean.

In English, people sometimes say one should never let a good crisis go to waste—meaning that amid emergencies things can be achieved that could not be done before.

Korean Air plans to reinstate some previously suspended domestic flights in May, a sign that domestic demand is beginning to recover from the COVID-19 crisis in South Korea.

A small helicopter flying as a technology demonstration with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission has been attached to the Perseverance rover in preparation for launch this summer.

NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, have joined the list of NASA facilities reaching Stage 4 of the agency’s Response Framework to COVID-19.

Japan’s major airlines are continuing to shrink their international networks as they increase capacity cuts through late April and plan larger reductions extending into May.