The US hits a new daily record and cases surge as states reopen but Donald Trump still “hopes” that “it will disappear.” UK aviation, travel and hospitality sectors slim down for survival. Aeromexico files for bankruptcy. Amsterdam turns the (red) lights on again and increased compensation for Germanwings crash rejected.
Wishing and hoping and opening
The United States has reported yet another record daily number of new coronavirus infections, over 50,700 cases, according to a tally being kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The US is experiencing a surge of new cases, especially in the South and West, as states have reopened their economies from coast to coast.
California closed bars, theatres and indoor restaurant dining all over again across most of the state Wednesday, and Arizona’s outbreak grew more severe. The California shutdown announcement, which came just ahead of a Fourth of July weekend that could fuel the spread of the virus, applies to about 30 million people, including Los Angeles County.
The surge in new cases has been blamed in part on Americans not wearing masks or obeying social-distancing rules.
Despite the fact that the US has the most confirmed coronavirus infections and deaths in the world, Donald Trump did not appear overly concerned.
He told Fox Business: “I think that, at some point, that’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope.”
Travel, tourism and hospitality take a bit hit in UK
Companies linked to hospitality, travel and retail in Britain have announced thousands of more job cuts as the longer term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic take hold, choosing to slim down for survival rather than await potential government handouts.
The owner of sandwich and coffee shop chain Upper Crust was the latest business to announce cuts Wednesday. Some 5,000 jobs are under threat as travellers stay home amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Airbus cut 15,000 jobs, including 1,700 in the U.K. Budget airline easyJet began consultations with unions on cutting a third of its staff, or 4,500 jobs in all.
Retail is also taking a hit with even the renowned Harrods reportedly making plans for 700 cuts, blamed in part on a lack of tourists.
Aviation, one of the hardest hit sectors, has been seeking help while continuing to make more cuts. EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said job losses and the potential closure of three bases in the UK could not be avoided given the near- halt of air travel globally.
“We are focused on doing what is right for the company and its long term health and success so we can protect jobs going forward.”
Unions are alarmed at the waves of promised redundancies, arguing that the government’s furlough program is not enough to keep people in work for the long term.
Aeromexico files for bankruptcy protection
Mexico’s oldest legacy airline, Aeromexico, said Tuesday it has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, a form of bankruptcy in which the carrier can keep operating while its debts and obligations are sorted out. The airline said “this legal process will not interrupt the airline’s operations” and that all tickets, reservations and bonus points would continue to be honoured.
Like many airlines throughout the world, Aeromexico has been squeezed by a decline in travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Aeromexico General Director Andres Conesa said “the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the global economy and travel industry.”
In a statement, Aeromexico wrote that “many leading airlines throughout the world have used Chapter 11 to strengthen their financial position, and they continue to be solid companies that serve passengers across the world now. That is what we intend to do.”
Mexico’s government has refused to bail out large private companies, even those battered by the pandemic.
Mexico’s other legacy airline, Mexicana, went into a Mexican bankruptcy proceeding in 2010 and never re-emerged.
Red light for Amsterdam
It wasn’t quite business as usual Wednesday as Amsterdam’s red-light district emerged from coronavirus lockdown, but it was close.
“We are, of course, used to taking care of hygiene,” said Janet van der Berg of the Prostitution Information Center in the heart of the network of cobbled streets and canals where sex workers pose in windows bathed in red light to attract customers.
Sex work was the professions allowed back in business as of July 1 in the latest relaxation of virus-prevention measures in the Netherlands. Gyms also reopened their doors Wednesday.
Van der Berg said not all of the windows in the historic buildings of the red-light district were occupied on the first day of post-lockdown business. The number of tourists and visitors to the Dutch capital has slumped since the pandemic all but halted global tourism.
But according to van der Berg, it was bustling as sex workers welcomed clients again. “I’ve heard that they’re busy. I think there’s a party atmosphere,” she said.
Sex workers took steps to minimize the risk to themselves and their clients of becoming infected with the coronavirus, including checking individuals for symptoms before letting them through a window.
“There are hand gels and we’ve thought about what positions are handy – or not – but that’s not in an official protocol, you can work that out for yourself,” said van der Berg. “And once the client is gone, you have to disinfect the place well. … I think in this way we can work as safely as other people who have to work close to their clients, like hairdressers.”
The red-light district remains one of Amsterdam’s major tourism magnets with its often seedy mix of bars, brothels, sex shows and coffee shops selling marijuana.
Higher compensation denied
A German court on Wednesday rejected demands for higher compensation from Lufthansa by eight people who lost loved ones in the deliberate crash of a plane operated by its budget airline Germanwings five years ago.
French and German investigators have concluded that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally crashed the Airbus A320 he was co-piloting into a French mountainside on March 24, 2015, killing all 150 people on board flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
News agency dpa said the state court in the western German city of Essen rejected the plaintiffs’ case for a higher payout than originally offered, as judges found that Lufthansa and its US-based flight school weren’t responsible for determining whether Lubitz was fit to fly. The plaintiffs had argued that they allowed him to complete his training despite evidence of mental illness.
Judge Lars Theissen said aviation safety is “a state task.”