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BUSINESS Thursday 23 July 2020
United sees revenue stalling at 50% without a virus vaccine

By DAVID KOENIG AP Air- "very high compliance"
lines Writer with the rule.
United Airlines executives "We have had fewer than
said Wednesday that travel 30 that we have had to ac-
will rise when the number tually take action against,"
of new coronavirus cases he said. "We will welcome
drops but the airline's reve- them back when this is all
nue will stall around 50% of over and masks aren't re-
pre-pandemic levels until quired."
there is a vaccine. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bas-
No doubt United would tian told NBC that his air-
settle for half of normal line has banned more than
sales right now. Its revenue 100 people for not wear-
plunged 89% in the second ing face masks. This week,
quarter, pushing the Chi- Delta began additional
cago company to a $1.6 screening of passengers
billion loss. who claim that a health
Air travel was slowly re- issue prevents them from
covering until the number wearing one.q
of confirmed coronavirus
cases in the U.S. surged,
especially in the Sun Belt,
starting around late June.
New York, New Jersey and In this June 16, 2020 file photo, a traveler wears a mask and protective goggles as he walks
Connecticut now require through Terminal 3 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
visitors from 31 states to Associated Press
quarantine themselves for
14 days upon arrival, and nue will rise to 50% of normal sengers. United said it lim- es to leave and will be paid
other states have similar "over time" and stay there its full flights by substituting through November.
edicts. until there is a vaccine for larger planes — 4,000 times United shares fell more
About 530,000 people went COVID-19, the disease pro- in May and June, it said. than 4% Wednesday while
through U.S. airport security duced by the coronavirus. United said its average shares of other largest U.S.
checkpoints on Tuesday, United and other airlines flight from April through airlines fell by less than 1%.
the lowest number in July are trying to persuade con- June was 35% full and it esti- United also announced
other than the Indepen- sumers that air travel is safe. mates the July average will Wednesday that it is ex-
dence Day holiday, and CEO Scott Kirby said that be 45%. panding its rule on face
down 78% from a year ago. filtration systems and air- United is focused on re- coverings. Passengers will
United executives said the flow patterns inside planes ducing costs to survive the have to wear face masks
setback will be only tempo- make them safer than res- downturn in travel. The air- at ticket counters, bag-
rary. taurants, office buildings, line estimates it will lose $25 gage-claim areas and in its
"We do expect that de- "or even a hospital." million a day during the airport lounges or risk being
mand recovery, which "It really is one of the safest third quarter, down from banned from flights. Delta,
stalled in recent weeks, places you can be if you $40 million a day in the sec- JetBlue and Southwest al-
will begin to recover again are going to leave your ond quarter. ready have similar require-
when new cases start to fall, house," Kirby said. Labor is the biggest sin- ments. All the familiar U.S.
quarantines are lifted, and Passengers have criticized gle expense for most air- airlines require passengers
borders are reopened," An- United for booking planes lines, and United last week other than small children
drew Nocella, the airline's full when it can. American warned 36,000 employees and those with certain
chief commercial officer, does the same, while Del- that they could be fur- health problems to wear a
said Wednesday on a call ta, Southwest and JetBlue loughed in October. The mask during flights except
with analysts and reporters. block some seats to create company said 6,000 have while eating or drinking.
Nocella said United's reve- more space between pas- taken severance packag- Kirby said United has seen

Slack files anti-competitive complaint vs. Microsoft in EU

Workplace chatting service Microsoft Corp. said in a lic in April 2019. Slack still competitive advantage of
Slack has filed a complaint statement Wednesday that faces tough competition, Teams has been connect-
in the European Union it looks forward to providing particularly from Microsoft's ing people on video.
against Microsoft, accusing the European Commission Teams software. Slack last "With COVID-19, the mar-
the software company of with more information and month announced an ex- ket has embraced Teams
anti-competitive behavior. answering its questions. panded partnership with in record numbers while
Slack said Wednesday that San Francisco-based Slack Amazon's cloud comput- Slack suffered from its ab-
Microsoft illegally bundles Technologies Inc., which ing division, an attempt to sence of video-conferenc-
its Microsoft Teams messag- went public in 2019, has join forces with Microsoft's ing," Microsoft said. The
ing product, which is similar been growing rapidly. It chief rival. It more recent- European Commission will
to Slack, into Office 365, reported $201.7 million in ly announced it is buying review the complaint and
its package of email and sales in its February-April Rimeto, which creates de- decide whether to open a
other widely used business quarter, up 50% from the tailed staff directories. formal investigation.If the
software. Slack says Micro- same time last year. It also Microsoft, which is based European Commission de-
soft forces companies to in- reported 122,000 paid cus- in Redmond, Washington, cides to investigate, Micro-
stall it for millions and blocks tomers, up 28% from when emphasized in its state- soft could potentially face
its removal. the company went pub- ment Wednesday that the huge penalties. q