Global airlines likely to be bankrupt by end of May, aviation consultant warns

Without government intervention, most airlines will go bankrupt by the end of May amid the coronavirus outbreak, an aviation consultant warns.

The warning, published by CAPA Centre for Aviation, based in Sydney, Australia, noted that cancellations outweigh future bookings, and airlines are seeing an unprecedented lack of demand.

Airlines have taken many precautions already — cutting flights and postponing new pilot trainings — amid recommendations to stay home and international travel restrictions.

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CAPA notes "national self-interest over cooperation" to be a major threat of airlines throughout the world. The largest airlines in the U.S. and China will likely survive with government or owner assistance, per CAPA.

But intergovernmental coordination is necessary, CAPA says, and without it, "emerging from the crisis will be like entering a brutal battlefield, littered with casualties."

"The last thing the world needs post-coronavirus is a nationalistic aeropolitical confrontation," CAPA stated.