Turkish Airlines (THY) will organize flights from 3 cities of the USA for the citizens who could not return to Turkey because of the cancellation of flights within the scope of precautions for the new type of coronavirus ( COVID-19) pandemic. 

According to the written announcement made by the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C., Turkish Airlines will schedule flights on April 23 from Washington D.C. and Los Angeles and on April 24 from New York for the short-term visa owners who reside in the U.S. temporarily, students, tourists, workers and those who are present in the U.S. for job interviews to return to Turkey.

 The citizens who want to return to the country will provide their written approval to be quarantined for 14 days following their arrival in Turkey, either during the ticketing process or just before on boarding the plane. People showing COVID-19 symptoms on the day of the flight or have been diagnosed before will not be allowed on board. 

The ticket sales are available online. In the first two days of sales of relevant tickets, the tickets will be sold primarily to the citizens who have notified their names to the Washington Embassy and New York and Los Angeles Consulate Generals until April 14. In case there will be available seats following the first two days, citizens in other regions will be able to buy tickets for one of these three flights. 

The Employment figures in the U.S. were announced. During the month of March, non-farm employment decreased by 701,000 people, the unemployment rate increased to 4.4%, and the hourly rate rose by 3.1% per annum, with an incremental increase of 0.4% per month.

The data shows that while the coronavirus epidemic has led to an increase in the unemployment rate, there has yet to be any impact on hourly earnings.

The economy in the country is almost at the point of standstill, with the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China and moved its epicenter to Europe, continuing to increase its impact in the US. While the service sector remains the worst-affected, and production has been suspended during this period, the number of applications for unemployment benefits has hit a record—reaching ten million.

In the United States of America, apart from the number of people who have been tested positive for COVID-19, the number of people applying for unemployment benefit has hit a historical high. Only last week, 6.6 million people applied for unemployment benefits.

Following the dismissal of 3.3 million people last week, around ten million people were left with no source of income due to the pandemic. The report prepared by the Ministry of Labor revealed that the economy was dragged into a serious recession with the shutting of businesses worldwide, while unemployment rates increased exponentially.

“It’s only the beginning.”

The high number of layoffs causes many economists to paint a pessimistic picture. It is stated that the current ten million job layoffs may increase as much as another ten million by the end of April. This number is twice as high as the dismissal number (of 8.7 million people) during the Great Depression.

The Chair of the FED: A recession is expected.

Jerome Powell, Chair of the US Federal Reserve, warned that the US could enter a recession. Powell said that the full recovery of the economy was directly linked to limiting the spread of the virus.

International economics specialist James Knightley of Dutch ING Group said that although it was known that tens of thousands of workplaces had been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was shocking that there had been more than 3 million applications for unemployment pay.

“New monetary aid packages could be needed.”

The US Senate already approved the government’s $2 trillion aid package.Speaker of House,Nancy Pelosi stated that more economic relief packages would be needed in the near future.

Within the scope of this fund, three thousand dollars of support per family is planned, while businesses get 500 billion dollars of support.

The hardest decline of the last 33 years in the US travel industry
Travel industry forms in the US have experienced the hardest depreciation of the last 33 years. The travel industry and tourism companies suffered sharp declines following President Trump’s announcement last Thursday that European flights were suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak for 30 days.

According to the news created by the statistical database Statista on Yahoo Finance data, the travel industry has experienced the most severe decline since 1987. Industries such as airlines, cruise, and online reservation platforms have been badly affected.

The Cruise Companies have losses of over 30%
The top three US cruise companies suffered more than 30% loss in stock market shares. Airlines and online booking companies have also suffered double-digit losses. Cruise companies like Norwegian Cruise Line suffered 35.8% losses in shares. Royal Caribbean experienced a loss of 31.8%, and Carnival suffered a loss of 31.2%.

Status of the Airline Companies

While United Airlines suffered 24.9% losses, Delta Air Lines suffered 21% and American Airlines 17.34%. Online reservation platforms ,such as Expedia (15.2%) and Booking Holdings (11.2%), have also suffered losses in the stock market.

Coronavirus Precautions from Turkish Airlines

Announcement from THY: “As Turkish Airlines, our top priority is the safety and health of our passengers and teams. From the first days of COVID-19 news reports, Turkish Airlines has followed the developments closely, evaluated possible scenarios at the highest level, and took all additional necessary measures. All the cabins in our international flights, the interiors of our passenger buses, our passenger lounges, and ticketing areas are going through a detailed cleaning process. This process includes a disinfectant steaming treatment, which has been proven effective against viruses, including the new coronavirus known as COVID-19.

Additionally, Turkish Airlines has announced that ticket changes will be made free of charge for passengers who have canceled flights departing from Germany, France, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.”

 Although it did not draw a lot of attention, DataRow, a technology company of Turkish origin, was bought by Amazon. DataRow, which makes it easier for users to work on Amazon Redshift, was founded in 2017 by Eren Baydemir and Can Abacigil and is currently operating from San Francisco. 

DataRow's parent company, TeamSQL, is still operating in Istanbul. Although there was no official announcement of how much was acquired for this company that two young people created and sold to the biggest company in three years, DataRow's team would continue to work within the Amazon family.

In addition to this beautiful success story, the number of big or small Turkish companies working in the start-up field in Silicon Valley is around 100! Likewise, the number of Turks working in technology companies around the world has exceeded 500. Many of our young engineers work in the world's best companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Twitter. I believe that soon Turkey will make a much larger leap into the IT sector, making us proud.