- Jamaica's De Cordova-Reid joins Leicester from Fulham
- Wolves' Kilman reunites with Lopetegui at West Ham
- Schmidt reign off to winning start as Australia beat Wales 25-16
- Russian wrestlers reject Olympics invitation
- Raducanu rediscovers Wimbledon 'fun' factor after turbulent spell
- Winning all that matters at Euro 2024 for Mbappe's minimalist France
- Eight dead, two million affected by Bangladesh floods
- Robertson pleased to 'find a way' past England in tough Test baptism
- Martin sets lap record to secure German MotoGP pole
- 'Shattered' Germany set sights on World Cup after Euros exit
- Olympic hope Pedersen pulls out of Tour de France
- Djokovic eyes sweet 16 at Wimbledon as Swiatek takes on 'gangster'
- End beckons again for Ronaldo after Portugal Euros KO
- New Zealand edge England 16-15 in tense, brutal first Test
- Turkey take on Dutch in politically charged Euros quarter-final, England face Swiss
- Calling for better ties with West, Iran reformist wins presidency
- Cybercrime groups restructuring after major takedowns: experts
- Activists hail Sierra Leone child marriage ban, urge action on FGM
- Marsch relishing Canada's semi clash with Argentina
- Canada stun Venezuela on penalties to reach Copa semis
- Iran reformist Pezeshkian holds early lead in runoff vote
- Swiatek faces 'gangster' threat, Djokovic feels need for Wimbledon speed
- France holds its breath ahead of uncertain vote
- Starmer begins UK 'rebuild' after landslide election win
- Paris's Moulin Rouge inaugurates new windmill sails ahead of Olympics
- Pan, Rai share halfway lead in PGA John Deere Classic
- 'I was feeling terrible' in debate, Biden says in TV interview
- France coach Deschamps savours ending penalty hoodoo, defends Mbappe
- Thompson bids farewell to Warriors after exit
- Portugal exit Euros with pride, will return stronger: Martinez
- UK's new PM Starmer speaks to world leaders, names top team
- Spain and France to face off in Euros last four, Turkey lament 'unfair' Demiral ban
- Israel says negotiators to hold fresh Gaza truce talks next week
- France beat Portugal on penalties to reach Euro 2024 semi-finals
- Endrick to start for Brazil in Uruguay Copa clash: Dorival
- Heartbreak for Germany fans after dramatic Euros exit
- Beryl heads for Texas after causing damage, no deaths in Mexico
- Nagelsmann laments late penalty decision as hosts Germany exit Euros
- Biden declares he's all in ahead of high-risk TV interview
- Spain team 'is a winning horse', says De la Fuente
- Bows at the ready, Chad villagers battle kidnappings
- Alcaraz mimics Bellingham goal celebration after Wimbledon win
- Olmo hopes Pedri can make speedy return for Euros semi-finalists Spain
- Retiring Kroos hopeful despite Germany's 'bitter' Euros exit
- Southgate turns on English 'entitlement' over claims of easy Euros draw
- Merino extra-time goal sends Spain past Germany to Euro semis
- Koeman demands Dutch silence fervent Turkish fans at Euros
- Brad Pitt at Silverstone for filming of F1 movie
- Raducanu storms into Wimbledon last 16
- California fires spread in July 4 weekend heatwave
US airlines hopeful for post-Omicron 2022 after Q4 losses
Major US carriers stumbled through another money-losing quarter at the end of the 2021 but remain confident of a travel recovery later in 2022, based in part on hopes that Covid-19 will soon evolve into an ordinary and seasonal virus.
Earnings releases from American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines painted a similar picture of a fourth quarter that began buoyantly amid increasing Covid-19 vaccination levels in the US population, but concluded with a thud as the Omicron wave spread quickly.
The Omicron surge has not only weighed on bookings in early 2022 -- already a seasonally weak period -- but also played a role in the cancelation of nearly 32,000 flights in the United States between Christmas Eve and January 11 as airline employees infected with the virus were unable to work.
While acknowledging that the Covid-19 situation remains fluid, airline executives spoke bullishly about the travel market after February, eyeing a good spring travel season followed by a potentially busy summer.
American Airlines has seen an uptick in reservations beyond the next 60 days, Chief Executive Doug Parker said Thursday on CNBC after the carrier reported a $931 million loss for the fourth quarter and a $2 billion loss for the year.
American "will continue to match its forward capacity with observed booking trends," said the carrier, which plans first-quarter capacity to be down eight to 10 percent compared with 2019 levels.
United Airlines acknowledged that it is beginning 2022 "with a scaled-back schedule" following the latest uptick in virus cases, but will "nimbly ramp up" capacity later in the year, the company said Wednesday.
"While Omicron is impacting near-term demand, we remain optimistic about the spring and excited about the summer and beyond," said United Chief Executive Scott Kirby.
- Covid-19 at 'endemic' stage? -
United reported a fourth-quarter loss of $646 million as it lowered its outlook for 2022 capacity amid a sluggish return in highly profitable business travel.
But the carrier reaffirmed its profit targets for 2023 and beyond.
Kirby is among the executives who have spoken about Covid-19 moving into an "endemic" phase, a view also adopted by Delta Air Lines.
After reporting similar results last week to its two rivals, Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian said "the worst may be behind us" on Omicron and that the broader Covid-19 challenge may be shifting.
"Given the high transmissibility and lower severity of Omicron, this variant is likely to mark the shift in Covid-19 from being a pandemic to a manageable and ordinary seasonal virus which should accelerate the path to a normalized environment," Bastian said.
How Covid-19 will evolve from here remains a matter of uncertainty and debate within the medical community.
"I do think that Omicron likely represents a step towards endemicity because so many people will be infected with Covid and Omicron is basically unavoidable, many people will change the way they think about Covid-19 and risk calculations," Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in an interview.
He added that the latest variant has "accelerated" the discussion on a "post-pandemic" world "in which there is Covid but if you're fully vaccinated, Covid-19 becomes a mild illness for you."
- Possibility of new strains -
But Mark Kline, the chief medical officer at Children's Hospital in New Orleans, told AFP the optimism about Omicron "could be a little bit of wishful thinking."
Kline said that the Covid-19 virus should become less deadly as it evolves. But that does not necessarily mean that the virus has reached that stage yet.
"The flaw in the thinking is if we were only dealing with Omicron, I could buy into that, but it's not going to be Omicron, it'll be something else," said Kline, adding that future strains could resemble the Delta variant or be even more deadly.
Shares of American Airlines dropped 3.2 percent to finish at $16.76, while United Airlines fell 3.4 percent to close at $42.88. Delta, which reported results on January 13, was unchanged at $38.84.
Ferreira--PC