Scope says European carriers have options to deal with the Covid 19 crisis

Scope Ratings says the longer-term challenge for surviving airlines is that they will be operating in a much changed and less favourable economic environment than before the crisis: a smaller travel and tourism market with less buoyant growth. “The Covid-19 crisis is proving a severe test of airline strategy in recent years, with the industry divided between airlines which pursued conservative financial policies, keeping cash on hand as much as possible, and those which favoured returning cash to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks and/or borrowing to expand fleets aggressively,” said Werner Stäblein, analyst at Scope.  “Airlines’ cost structures also vary