As the world grinds to a slowdown, airlines are feeling the pinch more than most businesses with the already ailing FlyBe, Europe’s largest airline, now into administration. Other carriers globally are cutting routes, freezing pay and using smaller aircraft to cope with a further slump in bookings. British Airways and Ryanair, Europe’s biggest short haul carrier, announced flight cuts on Monday. Globally, airlines took five years to return to profit after the 2001 terror attacks and plunged back into negative territory in 2008.
Looking across a range of airline charts what’s clear is that this is not a short-term crisis. Almost all of them point to this year as a severe struggle but also to 2022/23 as crunch points, which may not all be down to epidemic panic. The Greta effect, carbon-footprint concern may also be adding pressure.
Ryanair, 5 July 1985, has a high-insecurity Solar Arc Uranus opposition its Mars this year; with a disappointing tr Neptune conjunct the Solar Arc Jupiter in 2020/21. But worse than that, they face a car-crash scenario from Solar Arc Mars square Saturn in 2021/22.
Both of the British Airways charts – 31 March 1924 and 1 April 1974 – are exhibiting high stress and anxiety this year and next; with worsening fortunes in 2022/23.
United Airlines, 28 March 1931, is into turbulent waters with discouraging challenges now into next year; again with completely blocked and catastrophic influences in 2023/24.
KLM, Lufthansa and Air France all show much the same timelines.
Business Analysts seem to agree Norwegian is in big trouble. More traditional companies have more assets they can rely on. But it has been a strange business. Growth has been exponential since 9/11, especially for flights to and in Asia. Also, growing volumes lowered consumer prices in the last 15 years, even if there hasn’t been much technical advance to justify any of this.
This is so thought provoking Marjorie. Thank you. I wonder about Saturn in Aquarius for one thing, but the charts seem to be showing some bigger social and cultural shift. Less flying would benefit the environment, with less tourism benefiting it too – although that will demand significant changes in multiple economies. So many rely on tourism everywhere at the moment, with Chinese tourists apparently spending more than even the Americans. Still, it’s unsustainable as things are, so we’ll see.
“So many rely on tourism everywhere at the moment, with Chinese tourists apparently spending more than even the Americans. Still, it’s unsustainable as things are, so we’ll see.”
True, although in my country (I had to dig these figures a couple of years ago a marketing project), Americans aren’t even in TOP5 for daily spending. Could be because many Americans coming in are cruise tourists, and will spend little on food. However, while Japanese still top the chart for daily spending, Chinese aren’t much behind. They tend to spend less on food and local goods (Japanese are extremely organized shoppers, I saw lots of young women with catalogues in Japanese with description of candy at a central supermarket in Helsinki a couple of years ago), more on international brands.
Yes, I was wondering about cruise ship tourism, and whether what’s showing the airline charts might be reflected in those for cruise liner companies. Cruise ships are also a looming problem – the environmental impact, and the tourists filling places up, while not spending on food or accommodation. There’s been a lot about Venice in particular in the press, and I think they are struggling to deal with this phenomena. Broadly, I guess we look at Neptune in Pisces here. There’s an element of illusion, with mass tourism bringing income, yet not always a positive event for communities – plus the Air B ‘n’ B effect. Neptune’s smoke and mirrors?
Chinese shoppers in the UK also love brands. The train from London to Bicester Shopping Village near Oxford (reduced price designer brands) has recorded passenger announcements in Mandarin, as well as Arabic, for the high number of tourist passengers to that destination!
I wonder if cruise line companies might be worth checking out? I’ve just looked at the founding date for P&O, according to their P&O heritage website. Company was founded on 22 August 1837. They have a Leo Sun conjunct Jupiter (28 Leo), Taurus Moon, and a Saturn in Scorpio (11) square Neptune in Aquarius (6) which will be put under pressure/disruption by Uranus in Taurus. There’s quite a bit more, including nodes at 24 Aries/Libra which might represent passengers as well as the employees? Anyway, this chart does look stressed now and in the near-ish future. Just a thought!
I think Marjorie has identified a broader trend here. I haven’t had time to check other cruise line companies, except for Cunard. They state they were founded in 1840. The first ship, the Brittania, sailed from Liverpool on Saturday, 4th July, 1840 – so I think this must be the founding date we could use. Sun at 12 Cancer is in line for this 4th July’s eclipse in Capricorn. Saturn at 16 Sagittarius is in line for the June lunar eclipse too. Cunard has Mercury 6 Leo, Jupiter 8 Scorpio, Neptune 14 Aquarius – so also sensitive to Uranus transit in Taurus, and eventually Saturn in Aquarius. Its Pluto is 19 Aries. Uranus is 20 Pisces. Quite a lot going on – a brief look I know. Just intriguing.
You can’t “work from Home”
you’ll be fired.
All airline employees are not cabin crew, and can, in fact, work from home. Also, even cabin crew won’t be fired in civilized countries, at least intially. You can get laid off with a cut pay, but not fired. It’s not wise, either, there is currently shortage of pilots globally, and pilots coming out of top commercial airline programs get sometimes offered double the salary they got with likes of Quantas, SAS and Finnair (because these companies don’t crash, obviously this is not just because pilots, but they do get better training in recognizing issues than most…) as soon as their binding contract is over. Not only, many countries in Europe actually pay quarantine days besides sick leave days.