Coronavirus Upheaves Airline Industry

By: Elias Weiss

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The airline industry is experiencing what some experts call the biggest decline since the invention of the airplane. Deficits at this point in the COVID-19 pandemic already exceed those following the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Coronavirus will cost the airline industry at least $113 billion, according to Forbes.

Ethan Barber is a pilot for Jett Aircraft, a private charter airline out of Fayetteville’s Drake Field. He said there is a paradigm shift going on among consumers in the industry.

“It’s really not the airplanes people are afraid of anymore,” Barber said. “It’s the destination.”

An unprecedented number of flights have been cancelled across the world’s major airlines, with smaller airlines shutting down completely.

“We went from flying about 40-50 flights per month down to… I flew two this past month of March,” Barber said. “It is absolutely killing us.”

Barber described the complications of a simple, regional route to a border state.

“When we landed there [in Texas], everybody came out in these full hazmat suits,” Barber said. “They told us we’re not allowed to go anywhere. They wouldn’t get anywhere close to you, wouldn’t handle any of our bags. People in the airports aren’t very interested in working with you. They’re very fearful of the coronavirus.”

Barber said he is fearful he will lose his job before the pandemic ends, and that his employer has already started preparing workers for the potential of bankruptcy.

“It’s scary,” Barber said. “It’s negatively impacting our industry. We hope it stops soon so we can get back to flying and get back to actually making some money.”