Martin Bohn knew right away things were going to change. As soon as the first announcement of the COVID-19 Coronavirus hitting the shores of the United States started to pop up, he knew his company was going to be hit hard.
Bohn is the CEO of Cobra Kai Air in Wichita Falls, Texas. He has watched as the COVID-19 virus has taken a large chunk out of his business over the past month and he doesn’t see an end in sight.
“The decline started about three weeks ago when the first case in the U.S. started to put travel restrictions on and calling for stay at home and don't move as much,” Bohn said. “And when it started basically shutting down businesses, then it really got serious.”
Since 2014 Cobra Kai Air has grown into a company that provides charter flights, pilot training and other services.
“Cobra Kai Air offers pilot services as well,” Bohn said. “Which basically means if you own your own private airplane and you need somebody to fly this aircraft for you, we can render the services because we have five full-time pilots and seven part-time pilots.”
However, every service that Cobra Kai offers has been severely reduced due to the pandemic.
“Actually the chartering of our planes is the smaller part of our business. The pilot services are significantly more,” Bohn said
“Our business is flight schooling as well. So we've got a flight school attached to all of this and the flight school students stayed home immediately because it's all a confined environment in the cockpit.
“So you really don't want to sit next to each other and doing that. In addition to that, a lot of the people that are basically from the military and the military put out a travel ban for 60 miles around their bases already three weeks ago.”
According to Bohn, for the past two weeks, everything has effectively come to a complete halt.
Late last week, President Donald Trump signed a historic $2 trillion stimulus bill to help boost the economy as it battles the ever-spreading coronavirus. Of that, $58 billion was set aside to help the airline industry.
With international and domestic flights being canceled every day, the airline industry has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. However, Bohn doesn’t believe his company will see any of the stimulus funds.
“I do not think that we are eligible,” Bohn said. “Because that is for airlines. We are an air carrier. There are significant differences.”
But, because Cobra Kai is a small, private charter, they do have the ability to operate in ways that much larger airlines are unable to do.
“If you have a charter I think you still have a very small chance to get some transportation in because you can now basically advertise that I can sanitize my airplane to get you home to your family and you don't have to mix with anybody else,” Bohn said.
“You don't have to go through the big terminal. This is all extremely sanitary because I can get you from your car directly into my airplane and I can take you wherever you need to go and you don't need to get in contact with anybody else.”
While Bohn plans to start to advertise this type of service in the coming days, he does admit there are drawbacks to it as well.
“The problem with that is we can't get a hand on our own sanitary and protective gear for the pilots,” Bohn said. “Nor can we afterward disinfect the airplanes right now because there's not enough equipment around that you can buy that you can really do this because you have to sanitize the aircraft completely.”
This has left Cobra Kai with very few options. The company has already sent everybody in the offices home. The only thing they are keeping open right now is the maintenance facilities to keep the aircraft up.
That means the company is having some difficult conversations with all of its employees in the coming days.
“We have to sit together with our people, basically making a financial plan for everyone saying, ‘Hey, how much do you need to make your payments per month?’ And that's what we're going to keep paying them if we can right now,” Bohn said.
“We're just going to go for a line of credit with the banks and we'll pay them. Because these people have been with me for many years, so now I'm standing up as good as I can and keep trying to pay them.”
Bohn says he has never seen anything like this before and the affect COVID-19 has had on the aviation industry. From the major airlines on down, everyone is feeling the effects.
As of right now, Bohn doesn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and is just trying to stay afloat until things can get back to normal. If that day does come.
“I don't know what the future is going to bring and how or if we can open the doors or not,” Bohn said.
“The interesting part is that we were able to basically develop five companies in seven years who were doing really okay up to right now. But what happens in two or three months from now? I don't know. Because I mean, we basically lost 75 to 80 percent of our income.”