Middle East Airlines Face Mounting Losses And Disappearing Passengers Amid Coronavirus Crisis

Middle East Airlines Face Mounting Losses And Disappearing Passengers Amid Coronavirus Crisis

The Oman government halted all international flights in and out of the country on March 17 and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and others have taken similar measures in a desperate bid to halt the spread of the disease.. A lot of routes around the Middle East have been suspended but even ones that are still operating have seen passenger numbers slump by as much as 60%.. So far, more than 16,000 passenger flights have been cancelled around the Middle East, a number that is expected to increase exponentially as tougher measures are brought in.. Overall, Middle East airlines had lost $7.2 billion in revenue by March 11.. Others like Bahrain's Gulf Air and Oman Air are also loss-making, not least because of expensive fleet modernisation schemes, while Qatar Airways has been haemorrhaging cash since four of its neighbours imposed a boycott in June 2017.. The governments of Qatar, Oman and Bahrain have been willing to cover the losses of their flag carriers in recent years, while also pushing them to improve their performance, but not all governments are in a position to offer large amounts of help.. With oil prices crashing thanks to the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia,