The U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) has put airlines on notice that customers must be “refunded promptly” for all flights canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The largest U.S. airlines slashed the bulk of their schedules for the next several months, forced to scale back to once-unthinkable levels by the total collapse in global air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. airlines stripped their international schedules to skeletal levels over the weekend, parking their widebody fleets and signaling difficult decisions ahead over reining in labor costs.
Carriers on both sides of the Atlantic are assessing the potential impact of the temporary travel restrictions to the US from more than two-dozen European countries in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
This week: Pegasus Airlines is adding more capacity into Israel; Viva Air Colombia is moving into a market vacated by Avianca; and Delta Air Lines is resuming service between Seattle and Dallas/Ft. Worth after a 14-year hiatus.