The COVID-19 pandemic's continuous disruption of normal travel schedules has been a difficult problem for industry members from all sectors to face.
World Travel, Inc.'s partners, however, have continuously taken employee and client-focused action to prioritize safety while making as few internal changes as possible. We've compiled a short summary, divided by industry area, of our partners' efforts in these areas.
Airlines
World Travel's airline partners report a general trend of staff layoffs and furloughs. Layoff totals range from a few hundred for several smaller airlines to several thousand for our larger partners.
Many companies are working to mitigate the impact of these staff cuts. For example, Hawaiian Airlines is currently offering voluntary leave to employees while doing everything possible to avoid furloughs.
Others are attempting to reduce their staff's hours or encourage early retirement. Nearly 40,000 American Airlines employees have opted for temporary voluntary leave or early retirement. In addition to laying off employees, United Airlines will offer a voluntary, company-offered leave of absence program that will decrease full and part-time employees' weekly hour limits.
Hotels
Hotel industry executives are using their platform to help their companies and employees as demand remains low. Executives teams at Hilton, Hyatt, International Hotel Group (IHG), and Choice Hotels have taken pay cuts of up to 50 percent of their salary. CEO of Wyndham Hotels Geoff Ballotti has forgone 100 percent of his base compensation for the year, while the company's board of directors has forgone the cash-based section of its retainers.
Car & Rail
Car rental, ridesharing, and rail companies are also experiencing extensive layoffs, but executives are once again leading corporate efforts against COVID-19's continuing effects with salary cuts. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will forgo his salary for the rest of the year and executives from Lyft will also take salary cuts.
Managing this crisis has been a difficult task for every travel industry member. But as the world reopens, signs of the recovery and resumption of travel continue to appear.
