Staff Coronavirus, News

OPEN, CLOSED, POSTPONED AND JUST COMFORTABLE: Coronavirus consequences

Man working with a laptop on a bed dressed in a shirt and tie and pajama pants and with his hand in his face with a thinking expression. Teleworking concept

We’re letting ourselves go, or perhaps just getting comfortable. A check of 80 of the top 100 US online retailers (and there’s no reason to believe Canadians will differ much), show sales of pajamas rose 143% between March and April. Falling are sales of pants, down 13%, and bras down 12%, according to Adobe Analytics. Meanwhile hotels, rental cars, cruises, flights, almost everything associated with getting away from it all, are on hold.

Here’s the rest of the story:

• The Canadian National Exhibition has been cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual summer spectacle joins a slew of large public events sidelined by the outbreak, which also forced the cancellation of Toronto’s Pride Parade and Caribbean Carnival, the Calgary Stampede, live Canada Day events in Ottawa and music festivals across the country.

• WestJet Airlines Ltd. is extending its suspension of thousands of flights by another four weeks until July 4 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The carrier is halting all US and international flights, as well as more than 40 domestic routes as travel controls and public health concerns continue to choke off demand.

The latest round of schedule scrubbing follows WestJet’s announcement on April 22 to suspend some 18,000 flights between May 5 and June 4 amid record-low passenger numbers.

• Air Canada cancelled all flights to the United States late last month after Ottawa extended its US border closure by 30 days, with most international flights also halted and seat capacity down more than 90 percent.

• Air Transat, Porter Airlines and Sunwing Airlines Ltd. have cancelled all trips until late June.

• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts global revenues will fall by US$314 billion this year, or 55 percent, from 2019.

• Brussels Airlines will let 25% of its workers go as part of a massive cost-cutting plan. The Lufthansa subsidiary in Belgium, which employs 4,000 people, has suspended its flights and plans to reduce its fleet from 54 to 38 aircraft as part of its restructuring.

• Ryanair will begin operating nearly 1,000 daily flights starting in July – assuming government restrictions on flights within Europe are lifted. The budget airline will restore 90% of its pre-COVID-19 route network. The airline has been operating with a skeleton schedule since mid-March, with some 30 flights daily between Ireland, the UK and Europe.

• Airline complaints have jumped from the average 1,500 per month, to more than 25,000 in March and April, according to the US Transportation Department. Most of the complaints were about refunds. The department issued new refund guidelines for airlines but stopped short of demands by congressional Democrats to require cash refunds instead of ticket vouchers when customers cancel a reservation. Airlines are issuing refunds if the carrier cancelled the flight.

• Hyatt will begin laying off about 1,300 people next month. The hotel chain has slashed costs through pay cuts for executives as well as work and pay reductions for workers, but it has not been enough to staunch the bleeding.

• Woodbine Racetrack is looking to restart horse racing next month. They plan to resume harness racing June 5 at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The 2020 thoroughbred season would begin the following day at Woodbine Racetrack. Should those dates not be possible, harness racing could restart June 12 with the thoroughbreds getting underway June 13.

Races at both venues would be held without spectators, likely through to September, Lawson said. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,

Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson said, “Let’s hope we can proceed with the big caveat that we need to get approval from government and health authorities.

“People need to get back to live racing, they need to earn a living. I think everyone understands we’re an industry that’s been very hard hit and the sooner we can get racing the better, all subject to proper health guidelines.”

Lawson’s announcement came on the same day the Ontario government extended its declaration of emergency in response to the pandemic until June 2. The order, which has been in place since March 17, was to expire Tuesday.

While thoroughbred racing has yet to begin at Woodbine, it’s been going on south of the border at such track as Florida’s Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs and Arkansas’ Oaklawn Park.