On April 20, 2020 – just one month into the COVID pandemic – AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas warned of travel chaos if the Australian government did not step up to support its airlines in a meaningful way.
Mr Thomas warned that many of the competitors of Qantas and Virgin Australia were government-owned and would fly out of the pandemic in far better shape than Australia’s airlines. He added that travel chaos was inevitable if the government didn’t do more.
Mr Thomas poured scorn on the piecemeal approach of the government highlighting that the US Government was providing $90 billion in assistance to its airlines.
The Australian government refused to support Virgin Australia which went into administration but was later rescued by Bain Capital.
While Qantas eventually received $2.50 billion over half of that was to keep a limited network operating to move cargo, mail and a handful of passengers around the country.
Singapore Airlines, which is majority-owned by the Singapore Government was enabled to raise $23 billion to survive the pandemic with minimal disruption.
If all Qantas staff were to be retained through the pandemic would have required $12 billion.
Qantas was forced to sell and lease back aircraft and sell property to survive.
Travel disruptions persist globally and predictions are the global supply lines – which severely impact aviation – will not be back to normal til late 2025.
Aircraft deliveries from Airbus and Boeing are in some cases up to a year late.
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Airlineratings.com is packed with information about air travel and answers questions that many of us may have thought of, but didn’t know who to ask. Well, now you do!
Airlineratings.com was developed to provide everyone in the world with a one-stop shop for everything related to airlines, formed by a team of aviation editors, who have forensically researched nearly every airline in the world.
Our rating system is rated from one to seven stars on safety – with seven being the highest ranking. Within each airline, you will find the country of origin, airline code, booking URL and seat map information.
The rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies, lead associations as well as the airline’s own safety data. Every airline has a safety rating breakdown so you can see exactly how they rate.
Over 230 of the airlines on the site that carry 99 per cent of the world’s passengers have a product rating.
Given that low-cost, regional and full-service carriers are so different we have constructed a different rating system for each which can be found within each airline.
