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The impact that the coronavirus outbreak has had worldwide on the airline industry is unprecedented.

This week, Seattle-based Alaska Airlines cut 75 percent of their flights schedule for April and May and according to Andrew McIntosh, who , they don鈥檛 expect things to get better until the fall at the earliest.

鈥淣obody is getting into airplanes,鈥� McIntosh told 成人X站 Nights. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something they have never before seen, not even after 9/11 or the financial crisis.”

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For the 12,000 employees of the airline, most from the greater Seattle area, the cancelled flights will have a significant impact.

鈥淚t鈥檚 another economic body blow to the region,鈥� McIntosh said. 鈥淔or workers, it means a hiring freeze, a pay freeze and the company pretty much begging for people to take unpaid leaves of absence in exchange for getting their health care insurance still included. If you are a cash contractor, you are going to be let go almost immediately.鈥�

McIntosh pointed out that the company鈥檚 managers and executives have taken pay cuts from 20 percent to 100 percent, and that the board of directors have decided to forgo their own cash retainers through September 30.

CEO of the Alaska Airlines group, Brad Tilden, is among those who are not taking a paycheck until further notice. According to McIntosh, his focus is moving forward and he has taken some uncharacteristically extreme measures in attempts to do so.

鈥淏rad Tilden is a pretty modest guy; he doesn鈥檛 hyper-inflate his industry rhetoric,” McIntosh said. “The company borrowed $400 million on its existing line of credit and secured another loan for $425 million more. These actions are unprecedented, but they are truly unprecedented times. He just basically said they have been around 88 years to serve customers and communities up and down the West Coast and provide good jobs for people and they want to be there when we get through this as well, so they have taken some really drastic, swift measures.鈥�

As dire as the situation appears for Alaska, owning over 100 of their own aircraft helped them acquire those loans. Many smaller airlines who lease their planes will have worse chance of surviving. In order for any of the airlines to survive, McIntosh believes they will need help.

鈥淏asically the pilots and the flight attendants and the mechanics that make the airlines work, they are like an economic engine of the country鈥檚 economy and if we want them to be around, we need to provide some measure of assistance to ensure that people continue to get paid or like many of the airlines in other parts of the world, they are basically just going to stop flying and wind down,鈥� McIntosh said.

When it is once again safe to fly, demand will dictate how many flights are added. McIntosh believes that demand will be great.

鈥淚 kind of think that after we are all locked up in the house for a month, 2, 3, 4 months, when we are given the okay to start flying again, there鈥檚 going to be huge demand. That鈥檚 what Alaska Airlines is banking on, that鈥檚 what others are banking on as well,鈥� McIntosh said.

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