IATA: Airline cash burn to accelerate as passengers use vouchers to pay for travel

IATA reported (17-Jul-2020) intra-EU passengers have used a large number of vouchers, issued since mid Mar-2020 in lieu of refunds, to pay for travel between 15-Jun-2020 and 15-Jul-2020. Airlines are now incurring the deferred cost of transporting these passengers against limited or zero new revenues. IATA stated: "Whilst the issuance of vouchers helped decelerate cash burn a few weeks ago, their use will now accelerate cash burn in the coming months". The data is based on IATA's Billing and Settlement Process, which underestimates the use of vouchers because it does not record vouchers as exchanges in all cases. [more - original PR]