United says stimulus package won’t fully cure financial losses

United Airlines warned Friday that the recently-passed $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill might not be enough to avoid layoffs within the company as the demand for travel is projected to remain low even after September.

The coronavirus aid package has $25 billion in grants to U.S. passenger airlines on the condition that they not furlough or cut the pay of their workers through Sept. 30, which United executives committed to on Friday.

“The impact of COVID-19 on demand for air travel has been dramatic and unprecedented – far worse than even the aftermath of 9/11,” United CEO Oscar Munoz and the airline’s president, Scott Kirby, wrote in a message to employees.

“This federal assistance buys us time to adapt to this new environment and assess how long it will take for our economy to begin to recover. But, what this means for you right now is that United will not conduct involuntary furloughs or pay cuts in the U.S. before September 30th,” they continued.

However, they added that the economic impact of the virus is projected to last beyond the scope of the aid package. Just last week, more than 3 million people filed unemployment claims as nonessential businesses have been forced to shut down amid the spread of the virus.

The airline executives said they’ve cut their April schedule by more than 60 percent and expect planes to fly at less than 20 percent capacity or in the single digits in some cases.

“Based on how doctors expect the virus to spread and how economists expect the global economy to react, we expect demand to remain suppressed for months after that, possibly into next year,” Munoz and Kirby said Friday. “That means being honest, fair and upfront with you: if the recovery is as slow as we fear, it means our airline and our workforce will have to be smaller than it is today.”

The United States has detected more than 100,000 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday afternoon, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.

Updated: 7:15 p.m.