American treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin says Americans should focus on domestic travel as the country starts returning to normal. International travel, suggested Mnuchin in a Fox interview, may not happen until 2021.
Mnuchin said it was ‘too hard to tell’ in response to a question when international travel will likely resume. Meanwhile, though no outright ban on international travel is likely, a US State Department advisory still asks Americans to avoid all international travel.
He encouraged people to travel closer to home, but added, “For businesspeople that need to travel, there will be travel on a limited basis.”
Airlines
Virgin Atlantic says it plans to cut 3,150 jobs and end its operation at London’s Gatwick Airport. The company says the job losses will be across the board and it will reduce the size of its fleet. Virgin is applying for emergency loans from the British government. The airline says recovery is expected to take up to three years.
Also, new car sales in the U.K. came to a near standstill in April, the lowest monthly level since 1946.
United Airlines is planning deep staffing cuts for pilots, managers and administrative staff in October after federal aid to help cover payroll costs runs out. The Chicago carrier warned its 12,250 pilots in a memo to prepare for “displacement” that affects 30% of them, or nearly 3,700 pilots. In a separate memo, United told employees it is planning at least a 30% cut in management and administrative staff, or 3,450 of them. Under terms of $5 billion in federal virus-relief aid, United can’t lay off employees through September.
Long-haul carrier Qatar Airways says it will lay off staff as the coronavirus pandemic largely has grounded the global aviation industry. Qatar Airways is one of the three major airlines in the Persian Gulf region created to capitalize on East-West travel. It began flying in 1994 and has a fleet of over 200 aircraft that it flies out of Doha’s recently built Hamad International Airport.
An emailed memo from the. airline’s CEO that leaked online said the layoffs number would be “substantial” and include members of its cabin crew.
Parks
A park in Miami Beach has had to be closed just five days after it reopened when lockdown restrictions were lifted after nearly 9,000 people showed up and were found to be violating the park’s mask policy. South Pointe Park on South Beach opened to the public once again on Wednesday after being closed for six weeks in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered all parkgoers to wear facial coverings but the policy was mostly ignored by those going to South Pointe Park. In the five days the park was opened from Wednesday to Sunday, park rangers issued 8,880 verbal warnings according to the Miami Herald, with the majority of the warnings, 5,261, issued over the weekend.
At one point the police decided to close the parking lot in an attempt to control crowds but it made little difference. ‘We have had city staff in the park to encourage people to comply, but they were met with hostility and non-compliance,’ said city manager Jimmy Morales.
Food services
After a roughly seven-week hiatus from serving coffee, Vancouver’s Pallet Coffee Roasters over the next week will reopen five of its cafes in an uncertain environment.
The Vancouver coffee chain is one of many eateries planning to resume service as governments ease restrictions put in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the details to be worked out: boosting staffing, new health protocols and how to manage customer behaviour.
“There’s no guidebook for this kind of thing,” said Alyssa Rugg, operations manager at Pallet. The company is making decisions using a combination of public health advice, results from other businesses that have resumed and sometimes just going with its gut.
B.C. ordered restaurants to close dining rooms in late March, but continued to allow takeout and delivery service. Other provinces made similar moves.
Pallet, which has been selling coffee online for delivery and pick-up at one downtown location, decided it was time to reopen additional shops as similar businesses began to resume.
The first step, said Rugg, was making sure its staff felt ready and comfortable with returning to work and
enough staff expressed interest in coming back to make the plan possible, Rugg said.
Tim Hortons is already encouraging its franchisees to build their teams back up in anticipation of dining rooms reopening, said chief operating officer Mike Hancock. Roughly 85 percent of Canadian Tim Hortons restaurants remain open, but with limited options like drive-thru, delivery and curbside pick-up. As these locations move to expand their services, they’ll need more staff.
Many provinces have started easing some restrictions or announcing their intention to do so in the near future. In Quebec, for example, retail stores outside of Montreal have begun to open.
Each province appears to have a different timeline, said Hancock, but there are similar rules, such as smaller caps to dining room capacity.
“We’re building out essentially scenarios for each phase, for each province,” he said.
A big part of that is how to communicate new policies to guests. That includes placing social distancing markers on floors and perhaps blocking off parts of the dining room or eliminating shared tables.
The marketing team is working on signs that will tell customers where to stand and inform them of other rules. So, when provinces announce specific requirements to re-open in-restaurant dining, the company will have signs ready to go, he said.
A huge question mark for Pallet was ordering supplies, said Rugg, and that’s part of the reason it chose not to serve food beyond pastries as that would further complicate logistics. She said she’s lucky to have accommodating suppliers, such as a cup supplier offering a one-day turnaround as Pallet figures out how much it needs.
The chain also had to determine new hours of operation for the takeaway service. Like many retailers, it has reduced hours in order to keep costs low and to prevent overworking staff.
Pallet is also starting to think farther down the line toward reopening its dining rooms – though when and how remains unclear.
Rugg worries about regulations set for restaurants in other jurisdictions, namely the US, and that those coming changes may be prohibitive.
She notes customers may become fed up with long waits if dining rooms operate at reduced capacity and staff must undertake extensive cleaning procedures in between clients. Its sparked some conversation among staff about when it may be worthwhile for the company to reopen its retail locations.
“Who knows what the kind of outcome of those kind of measures could be,” she said, noting she understands why these measures may be necessary to protect public health.
“But it doesn’t change the fact that it will be difficult.”
The owner of Outback Steakhouse and other national restaurant chains is opening the doors at hundreds of restaurants in multiple states Tuesday. There are already 23 Outback Steakhouse restaurants open for dine-in service at limited capacity, and Bloomin’ Brands said 336 dining rooms will reopen Tuesday.
Casinos
Casino workers across the US want their employers to provide them with protective equipment and adopt tough new cleaning and social distancing policies before the gambling halls reopen during the coronavirus outbreak.
Union leaders and workers from casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi, held a video press conference Tuesday to call for all workers to be tested at the casinos’ expense before returning back to their jobs.
The calls came as New Jersey lawmakers proposed what could easily be tens of millions of dollars worth of tax breaks and other assistance to Atlantic City’s casinos to help them survive the virus outbreak.
Two of the country’s largest casino worker unions, Unite Here and the Culinary Workers Union, also laid out detailed health and safety protocols unique to each worker’s job.
From the smattering of reopening plans revealed by a small number of casino companies, there appears to be agreement on some of the basics of what the workers want. Companies including Wynn Resorts, Hard Rock and Las Vegas Sands have all endorsed providing masks and gloves, and embraced social distancing.
But the union’s requests go much deeper, asking not only for new procedures, but major new commitments of time and resources to implement them. Donald “D” Taylor, Unite Here’s national president, said workers have to be given ample time to carry out the higher level of cleaning that guests will expect.
The American Gaming Association, the casino industry’s trade group, said specific plans will vary among casinos, but “our commitment to the well-being of our team members and guests is consistent all across the country.”
The requests came as New Jersey lawmakers began considering a pair of bills that would grant millions in tax relief to the nine Atlantic City casinos.
“We have to find ways to get these casinos open safely and get people back to work,” said state Senate President Steve Sweeney, one of the sponsors. “The economy of this region is totally dependent on tourism, and that’s going to be one of the hardest to recover.”
One provision would authorize the state treasurer to lend the casinos money from a tax relief fund that in parts helps keep senior citizens taxes down. The money would be used to make payments in lieu of taxes that the casinos owe to the city of Atlantic City on May 1 and Aug. 1.
In another provision whose benefits could quickly add up, the $500 annual license fee for each slot machine would be waived for a year starting July 1. That would collectively save the casinos nearly $9 million.
Casino workers on Tuesday’s video conference all described being eager to return to their jobs, while fearful of getting sick in doing so.
Jeff Payne, a lounge server at Caesars casino in Atlantic City, said the most important thing is that casino management and workers realize they are in this together.
“The casino industry, built on rewards and tiers, must understand that we are all equal,” Payne said. “COVID virus doesn’t care how much you gamble or what tier you are.”
The whales are back
North Atlantic right whales made their first appearance of 2020 in Canadian waters last weekend, prompting an immediate but temporary closure of fixed-gear fisheries in the area under new federal rules trying to protect the highly endangered animals.
It is an early start to whale season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, said Sean Brillant, a senior conservation biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Federation in Halifax. That could pose some additional trouble in a year when COVID-19 is already causing uncertainties in tracking the whales, and saving them if they get caught in fishing lines.
“The whales seem to be coming early this year, which is unusual but we certainly have a lot to learn about these animals,” Brillant said. “We are no good at predicting where they’re going to be or when just yet.”
Right whales live in coastal waters in the Atlantic, usually wintering in southern waters off Florida and Georgia, before migrating northwards for the summer. Their habits are changing as climate change warms the ocean and affects their food source