Having a home government with deep — and open — pockets is emerging as key in terms of whether an airline will make it through the coronavirus pandemic.
Carriers in jurisdictions where there is scant support from up high are most likely to go bust, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News. Using the Z-score method developed by Edward Altman in the 1960s to predict bankruptcies, Bloomberg sifted through available data on listed commercial airlines to identify the ones most prone to financial strife.
Against the same analysis done in March, when the virus was just starting to spread beyond China into parts of Asia and Europe, rapidly cutting off international travel, the results show a clear swing to the West. At least four of the 10 airlines named back then have restructured in some fashion, and all but one were in Asia.