The Federal government has announced that $715 million in fees and industry levies for Australian airlines will be waived in a relief package aimed to help them through major hits to tourism from global COVID-19 travel bans.
The Virgin Australia Group has suspended all international flights from 30 March to 14 June, and will reduce domestic capacity by 50 per cent for the same time period.
Qantas shares held remarkably firm on Tuesday despite the airline announcing it was to cut international capacity by 90 per cent earlier in the day.
Virgin and Qantas shares avoided a nosedive on Monday despite one of the toughest weekends the aviation industry has seen.
Scott Morrison’s advice to Australians to reconsider all oversees travel dramatically reversed an earlier fightback from Qantas shares on Friday.
Virgin Australia will not hire new staff and has increased capacity cuts to 7.7 per cent for the first half of the next financial year. In the latest measure to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus crisis, the airline has also stopped bonuses, trimmed marketing spend and will reduce chairman and board director fees by