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Quest Means Business

President Trump Meets With Texas Governor In Oval Office; IAG Warns Air Travel Demand Won't Recover Until 2023; United Airlines To Cut More Than 3,400 Jobs; Real-Life "Downton Abbey" Goes Digital To Stay Afloat; DP World Takes Extra Precautions Amid Recovery Effort; U.S. And U.K. Economic Fallout; White House Rejects C.D.C. Guidance On Reopening The U.S.; Global Tourism Could See 80 Percent Drop This Year. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired May 07, 2020 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:01]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: Good evening. Tonight, the virus is hitting the U.S. and the U.K. the hardest. We're seeing the depths in the

fallout -- the full economic fallout at the moment.

Two stats to bring you on opposite sides of the Atlantic, in the United States, the latest number of weekly jobless claims hit 3.2 million last

week. It's an astonishingly high number, and the best that we can say is that it is lower than previously, 33 million have now lost their jobs since

mid-March. That's one in five of workers.

On Friday, the jobs report will be the worst -- that's tomorrow's job report -- the worst since the Great Depression.

In the United Kingdom, the Bank of England says, a 14 percent contraction is expected this year. That's the worst in some 300 years. Nine percent

unemployment is expected to be the number.

Anna Stewart is in London. Julia Chatterley is in New York. Let's start with you, Julia, on the numbers that you've got, which are those relating

to the unemployment numbers.

But before we talk about the headline number if you like, explain to me, why a terrible number and the market rallies.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, "FIRST MOVE": There are two separate things here, Richard, completely as we keep saying, the real economy is not

reflected in what we're seeing in financial markets. You choose to fight the Federal Reserve and their trillions of dollars or you fight the

fundamentals, which are quite frankly, awful.

And the decision I think that investors are making is one, you don't fight the Federal Reserve and their trillions of dollars, and maybe we've seen

the worst and the states start to open up these job numbers, and the kind of economic stats that we're seeing will improve.

Well, they can't get much worse, quite frankly. What we're looking at here potentially is an unemployment rate in the United States somewhere between

16 and 20 percent.

I think that underestimates the number of people, the sheer scale of people that have seen the jobs lost, they have been furloughed, they have had

wages cut, they have had hours cut, that's probably more like half the workforce.

The only silver lining here, Richard that I think I can give you ultimately is that things will start to get better, but it's at what speed and how

quickly we can bring these jobs back, which is going to be the key.

QUEST: Anna Stewart in London, the Bank of England left monetary policy alone, and seems to be saying okay, this cake is now a baking. There's not

much more we can do at the moment.

But the numbers in terms of what the recession will look like is horrific.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely horrific. A few weeks ago, it would be unthinkable, frankly. The worst recession for 300 years and yet, you'll

think, I'm mad, but this was actually quite an upbeat assessment because there is a sharp downturn for the second quarter this year, expected down

some 25 percent.

But then a sort of very strong rebound, the Bank of England thinks in the second half of next year, so the economy shrinks by 14 percent, 2020, but

grows by 15 percent by the end of next year. Now, so much of that of course is contingent on how the U.K. exits lockdown, particularly with regards to

getting people back to work and off that furlough scheme -- Richard.

QUEST: Julia, the numbers as we've seen them, do we have any good idea of how many will be reemployed once the opening gets going?

CHATTERLEY: this is such a critical question. At this moment, an estimated 38 states have people that are currently on benefits and are getting paid

more or equal to what they were being paid before the pandemic hit.

People are still frightened, try to encourage those people to come back into the workplace when they're scared, and in many cases, they're earning

more. So, that's going to be I think, one of the critical challenges.

I spoke to Professor Ken Rogoff today and he said he still believes we'll have a 10 percent unemployment rate at the end of this year. So, we're

talking millions more than we have at the beginning of the year, but millions less unemployed than we have right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH ROGOFF, PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: I wouldn't contrast the U.S. and Europe that much. It depends on how much this goes up on and if we snap

back quickly, if a vaccine comes, if things go back to normal, a lot of these people will come back.

Whereas if it's last, I think again, if you look at Europe, a lot of the people that they're holding on to will be let go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:05:10]

CHATTERLEY: And this is the key --

QUEST: Anna Stewart in London, finally -- Anna Stewart in London, finally, what do you make of what was going to be announced this weekend by the

Prime Minister, in terms of reopening the economy?

STEWART: Well, everyone is watching to see what sort of process it'll be, but also we want to hear from the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak.

Now, as you heard from Rogoff there, you could hear that this furlough scheme cannot last forever, it actually wraps up at the end of June and

currently, Richard, almost one in four workers in the U.K. are being paid on a furlough scheme by the government. That cannot continue forever.

The question is, you can't just take it away quickly. It has to be tapered. You can imagine cafes and restaurants reopened after lockdown. Will many

people be going through their doors? What about consumer confidence?

This thing could have a lot further to go. So, how they taper it, how they decide to gradually ease workers back into the workforce is as important

perhaps, as the political side of it -- Richard.

QUEST: Anna, thank you, Julia, please make sure your calendar is free tomorrow at around this time because obviously, we've got a huge job

numbers tomorrow on employment and we'll need you and we will talk to you tomorrow on that.

Thank you, Julia and Anna, London and New York.

Sources are now telling CNN that the White House is not listening to the C.D.C., that's the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United

States.

Apparently, they made recommendations for reopening in phases. Donald Trump says he wants to open quickly. C.D.C. says the sources are lobbying the

White House trying to influence the current guidelines.

Gary Locke is in Seattle. Gary joins me now. In many ways, Gary, you are the perfect person for us to speak to today. Firstly, you're a former U.S.

Commerce Secretary so you can talk Trade and Industry. You're a former U.S. Ambassador to China, the current war of words; and the former Governor of

Washington State, which is one of those that has been hardest hit.

So, pull your experience together for me, sir. As you look at the way this reopening is taking place, and the economic implications of this, how do

you read it?

GARY LOCKE, FORMER GOVERNOR OF WASHINGTON STATE: I think we need to follow the basis for the health professionals, our local health professionals and

certainly those of the C.D.C., because they're the ones who were really sounding the alarm much earlier than the administration, the White House

was willing to act and we're now paying the consequences of it.

Look at the actions of some of the other countries around the world who got the same warnings from the C.D.C., and who acted on it. Look at Taiwan.

They've had very few deaths, even though they're almost right next to the Mainland of China and have many more people going back and forth in the

early days as tourists and as doing trade.

And yet, even though they're a smaller country than the United States, if you were to extrapolate their population to the United States, the number

of deaths in Taiwan would be the equivalent of less than 100 in America, adjusted for population compared to our over 70,000 death and still

climbing here in America.

So, there is that great temptation among all the government officials to reopen the economy. People are antsy, they don't like being home. I've been

cooped up in this house and taking almost very few trips out except for the drug store and the grocery store and people want to get out and about. They

want to mingle with friends and have dinner parties and go to restaurants and things like that.

But we've got to make sure that we're controlling the spread of the virus and doing everything we can to be safe. So states need to open up gradually

based on the science.

QUEST: Gary, I get that, but that is if -- that is saying -- to take what you're saying to the logical conclusion, you are imploring states to --

when you say open up more gradually, reverse, you would reverse many of the openings, things like tattoo parlors, hairdressers, beaches in Florida, you

are saying to be clear, that should not happen.

LOCKE: Yes, I'm commending the approach of many of the governors around the country who are saying let's do it in a phased approach. Let's see what

happens if we open it up slightly, making sure that the cases don't increase and spike again, and then gradually opening that up.

And maybe in certain parts of a state where there's a low incidence or low population, you can open up a faster.

But just to open things up, and to have a huge spike in cases, again will actually send those states back into, I think, even greater harm, greater

economic harm, and more importantly, loss of lives and many people sick.

[15:10:30]

QUEST: So, put your China hat on now. It's obviously not particularly productive for the U.S., for the Trump administration to get into this

battle with China. But do you see, do you believe that the U.S. will take some form of retaliatory action against China for what it perceives as

China's lack of transparency in terms of the early days of the crisis?

LOCKE: Well, I really think that right now, we should just be focusing on trying to protect the lives of Americans, keeping them as safe as possible,

trying to get our economy back on track, making sure that people have money in their pockets so that they can pay the rent, buy food.

And right now, too many people are suffering. Your earlier guest talked about perhaps 20 percent or even higher unemployment, and even as the

economy reopens, people are going to -- it's going to take a while for them to save enough money before they feel confident enough to start making

large purchases.

And so even though we may starting to reopen, businesses will be down, people will not be going to the groceries -- I mean, going to department

stores or eating in restaurants like they did before. They're not going to be buying cars like they did before. They are going to be a lot more

cautious. And so we've got to really focus on saving lives here in America.

In due time, we will find out exactly what the truth is, with respect to the origins of the virus. When it started, how many people were really sick

in China, how many people really died, but focusing on retaliating against China is distracting us from focusing on the task at hand, saving American

live.

Because the Trump administration took a month and a half to act even though other countries were jumping on it. And for a month and a half, the White

House was ignoring the warnings from the W.H.O. and other health professionals even within its own administration.

So taking punitive action against a China is not going to bring back all those people who have already died, and the people who will continue to die

if we downplay the seriousness of this virus.

QUEST: Gary Locke, thank you for joining us. Thank you.

LOCKE: Thank you.

QUEST: Now in global tourism, you could see an 80 percent drop this year. The industry could be losing, well, you can count the numbers for yourself.

The CEO of IHG -- Intercontinental Hotels Groups is with me and we will visit the real life Downton Abbey, it is Highclere Castle. Lady Carnarvon

is with us, the voice of the crisis in a real life castle, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:49]

QUEST: Welcome back. International tourism is taking a serious hit as obviously is quite clear. Bearing in mind there are no planes and hotels to

even go there or simply not open.

Some measure it could be by 60 to 80 percent this year according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization, the UNWTO and that's just in the first

quarter alone. The industry has an estimated $80 billion.

IHG, the Intercontinental Hotels Groups is obviously suffering historically low occupancy levels. The CEO, Keith Barr says the pandemic is the biggest

challenge the hotel industry has ever faced. Keith Bar joins me now.

Firstly, your numbers are baked for the first quarter, we've seen them. Second quarter will be even worse. How have you managed to circle the

wagons so that the hotel company at least survives in terms of raising capital and ensuring that you have -- you will have a business that can

reopen?

KEITH BARR, CEO, INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP: It's great to talk to you again, Richard. And this is the biggest challenge the industry has ever

faced, and when we saw what started in China then spread internationally, January and February were reasonably good months. And then we saw growth

power fall significantly in March, and it's on track to fall by 80 percent in April, too.

And so, again, historic drops in demand around the world, and our focus initially clearly was safety and security of customers, because we have

many customers self-isolating in our hotels, safety and security of our colleagues who are operating in the hotels, working with our owners to help

keep their hotels open.

Also working with governments to help be part of the solution, whether that's housing frontline workers or people in need, like the homeless, and

then it was clearly focusing on the strengths and liquidity of the company, and making sure that we come through this okay.

And so we announced some pretty significant cutbacks in terms of overall expenses back in March, cutbacks on capital, and then we clearly went out

and had conversations with our banks, and we've extended all of our banking covenants through the end of 2021.

I went to the Bank of England and drew down 600 million Sterling, so we have about $2 billion dollars in terms of liquidity. And so, in the zero-

occupancy environment, which isn't where we're at today, we have 18 months of viability.

So, we're running about mid-20 percent occupancy today. So, people are still staying in hotels. And so the company is in a very, very strong

position from a liquidity standpoint, and we're really focusing on supporting all of our customers and colleagues and owners.

QUEST: Right. So, if we look at an opening at a sort of a reopening of the business, do you have a number, a date in mind, where you think you will be

able to open in a meaningful way?

I realize different parts of the world, it could be Asia ahead of Europe, ahead of the United States. But airlines, for example, saying they don't

expect to be back until say, 2022-2023. What's your back of envelope date?

BARR: Yes, let me canter around the world and tell you where we're at today and then how we're thinking about the recovery. And so, in China, we had

190 hotels close at the peak, and now we only have a handful closed. So, we're back in business in China.

Across Europe, Middle East and Africa, we have about 50 percent of our hotels closed. But in the United States, we have less than 10 percent. And

so we're about 15 percent hotels closed around the world running about 25 percent occupancy, and that varies from market to market.

But the question is about the recovery, and I was on a call the other day with about six CEOs, and we're all saying that our crystal balls are a

little bit blurry at the moment about when that happens, because it will really require when does social distancing begin to end? When do borders

begin to open up and so our view on recovery is that domestic businesses will recover first before big international ones.

Mainstream businesses which have a big drive component will be part of that. It will be individual business travel and individual leisure travel

before groups, meetings, conferences and events, and international long haul will probably be the last to recover.

[15:20:17]

BARR: Fortunately, the vast majority of our businesses are big domestic businesses and so, our brand portfolio in our business plays to where the

recovery should be first.

QUEST: That's fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. But just to delve into that, is it realistic, I can understand you can socially distance in a

hotel because you've got different people in different rooms and you can ensure a very high quality of hygiene and disinfectant and all of that, but

as an industry, it requires large numbers of employees in closed quarters. Can you run large five-star hotels? Do you expect to keep all your brands?

BARR: Yes, we actually are going to keep all of our brands and you know, I'm quite excited, I was talking to the Six Senses team the other day,

which is our newest acquisition luxury resort brand in China and in Vietnam over the Labor Day holiday, those hotels were almost full. And so that

shows the demand for travel.

But we have colleagues wearing personal protective equipment. We're focusing on social distancing. We're having to scale back services,

clearly.

But it will vary around the world because we have some markets where there is no virus, and so we're able to operate more normally, but where the

virus exists, we're having to think through all of those things and how we're going to make sure we could deliver a good guest experience, but in a

safe way for colleagues and customers.

And we're going to have to innovate. I mean, this industry is going to have to innovate around how it delivers food and beverage, how it delivers the

guest experience, and we have teams of people already working and thinking about that of what's the hotel stay of the future in this sort of

environment?

QUEST: Keith, one final thought. On behalf of all your loyalty holders, thank you, for which I'm one myself, thank you for renewing or at least

extending anyone who has elite status.

But even so, even though you've extended us all for next year, it's going to be very hard, isn't it? You may have to rethink some of these parameters

of elite statuses in the loyalty programs in the future.

BARR: I think we're going to have to evolve in the next -- you know, the next couple of years are going to be challenging. I don't know if it's a

two-year or three-year recovery.

I mean, we're well positioned because of our brand portfolio. But we've got to put the customers and our owners at the heart of this because that's how

our business grows and thrives and so, we have to make sure that our loyalty program is relevant and evolves to how customer needs as much as

the guests experience.

QUEST: Sir, I need to just interrupt you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Keith Barr.

We now need to go to Donald Trump who has been speaking.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... testing once a day, but even when you test once a day somebody could -- something happens where

they catch something. But we've -- I've had very little contact -- personal contact with this gentleman. I know who he is, good person, but I've had

very little contact.

Mike has had very little contact with him. But Mike was tested and I was tested. We were both tested.

QUESTION: It can be --

TRUMP: Yes, it is a little bit strange, but it's one of those things. As I said, you know, I said yesterday, Governor, all people are warriors in this

country. Right now, we're all warriors. You are warriors, we are warriors.

You could be with somebody, everything is fine, and then something happens to that person and all of a sudden, tests positive. And we're all warriors

together.

I am, you are, we all are. It's what we were saying before. It shows the testing and we have the best tests in the world, but what happens in

between when you got tested and just a couple of days later?

So, in this case, there were a number of days missed, and it was a long weekend and things, and so you never know. But we both tested in a negative

fashion, I guess you would call it. Any other questions.

QUESTION: Can we get reaction to some breaking news, the Justice Department has decided to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn. Are you aware of

that?

TRUMP: I didn't know that was happening at this moment. I felt it was going to happen just by watching and seeing like everybody else does.

He was an innocent man. He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a

President. And what they've done is a disgrace. And I hope a big price is going to be paid. A big price should be paid.

There's never been anything like this in the history of our country. What they did -- what the Obama administration did is unprecedented. It's never

happened. Never happened.

[15:25:05]

TRUMP: A thing like this has never happened before in the history of our country and I hope a lot of people are going to pay a big price because

they're dishonest, crooked people. They're scum. And I say it a lot. They are scum. They're human scum.

This should never have happened in this country. A duly elected President, and they went after him by going after fine people, and those fine people

said, no, I'm not going to lie. I can't lie.

He's not the only one. There are many of them. And then also, they can't lie. They could have said something like, oh, make up a lie. Trump loves

somebody or something or some country.

And they said, no, you wouldn't have any problem. That's what they were trying to do. And it's a disgrace.

The Obama administration Justice Department was a disgrace. And they got caught. They got caught. Very dishonest people.

But much more than -- that's treason. It's treason.

So, I'm very happy for General Flynn. He was a great warrior, and he still is a great way. Now in my book, he's an even greater warrior. What happened

to him should never happen again. And what happened to this presidency, to go through all of that and still do more than any President has ever done

in the first three years is pretty amazing when you think of it with what we've done with regulations and tax cuts and Second Amendment and all of

the things we've done. It's never happened.

And until two months ago, we had the greatest economy in history, unfortunately, like you did in Texas, we had to close it down. But for

these people to have done that, I am very proud of General Flynn. I can tell you that right now.

QUESTION: Who would you like to see pay a price for this?

TRUMP: Oh, the people should pay a big price for what they've done to this country. They should pay a big price and their partner, very complicit is

the thing called the media. The media is totally guilty.

And all of those writers and so-called journalists -- they're not journalists, they're thieves -- all of those journalists that received a

Pulitzer Prize should be forced to give those Pulitzer Prizes back because they were all wrong.

There was no -- because if you saw it today, more documents came out, saying there was absolutely no collusion with Russia. It came out very loud

and clear and they wrote for years because they tried to do a number on the presidency and this President, it happened to be me.

Pulitzer Prizes should all be returned. Because you know what? They were given out falsely. It was fake news. They were all fake news. Those

Pulitzer Prizes should be given back immediately, and the Pulitzer committee or whoever gives the prizes, they are a disgrace unless they take

those prizes back.

Because they got Pulitzer Prizes for what turned out to be false stories, and Pulitzer Prizes should be given to the ones that got it right. And I

could give you a long list of those names too. And you know who I'm talking about.

QUESTION: Mr. President, Putin today --

TRUMP: I did.

QUESTION: ... ventilators or any equipment for this pandemic?

TRUMP: Yes, we are helping various countries, as you know, Russia is having a hard time with the same COVID-19. They got hit like everybody else got

hit. And we had a long talk and also the 75th year and you know, what the 75th year means, it was very nice.

He called me because we were partners, so to speak, for a very big successful war. And it was very nice. He called to -- as a congratulatory

call. It was a call of celebration because it was the 75th year and also, I suggested if they need -- because we have a lot of ventilators, if they

need ventilators, we'd love to send them some and we will do that at the appropriate time. We'll send him some ventilators and we'll be doing that.

And that was a very nice call. And remember this, the Russia hoax, it made it very hard for Russia and the United States to deal with each other.

They're a very important nation.

We are the most powerful nation. They are a very powerful nation. Why would we not be dealing with each other? But the Russia hoax, this absolute

dishonest hoax made it very difficult for our nation and their nation to deal.

And we discussed that, I said, you know, it's a very appropriate time, because things are falling out now and coming in line showing what a hoax

this whole investigation was. It was a total disgrace.

And I wouldn't be surprised if you see a lot of things happen over the next number of weeks. This is just one piece of a very dishonest puzzle.

QUESTION: Have they been trying to arrange an Arms Control Summit with President Putin and President Xi -- is that getting anywhere?

TRUMP: We are talking about arms control with Russia. And we will go forward with that and we are talking about it very seriously.

[15:30:10]

Having arms control. They have many nuclear weapons and so do we. And we're talking about a arms control with Russia. Yes, they'd like to do it. We'd

like to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, can we ask you about the economy? Today, we've now learned that 33 million jobs have been lost in the last seven weeks. Will

there be more jobs lost in May? Or is that number going to start coming down?

TRUMP: Well, yes, Peter, the number will start coming down at an appropriate time, whatever that is. Well, I'm viewing the third quarter as

being a very important quarter because that's, as I said, that'll be a transition. I think you could almost say a transition into greatness

because I think next year we're going to have a phenomenal year, a phenomenal year economically.

And we're working very hard now. The governor is working along with us in relationship with Texas has been phenomenal. And Texas is opening up and a

lot of places are opening up. And we want to do it and I'm not sure that we even have a choice. I think we have to do it, you know, we, this country

can stay closed and locked down for years. Somebody can say, let's keep it close for a couple of years.

The United States of America, the greatest economy in history, two months ago in the history of our country, in the history of the world, we had a

far greater economy than anybody, including China by a lot. And we had to close it down in order to really do something about the plague. But we did

something and we did a lot and we also -- you know what, Governor, we learned a lot about it.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): We did.

TRUMP: We know that you may have fires every once in a while in certain locations. Some little ones, maybe some big ones, but you know how to shut

it down. You might want to speak about that.

ABBOTT: Exactly right. Sure. I would. I was talking with Dr. Birx about that. And so, what we've done, we've been able to contain the spread of the

Coronavirus in Texas. But at the same time, we created these surge forces that will go out to regions where there are flare ups. It is like putting

out a fire. We have a search --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: So there, we'll leave the Texas Governor along with the, excuse me, the president and talking about Michael

Flynn, talking about jobs. Interestingly the one that noticed I would just point out, talking about the third-quarter which he says will be the

rebound and describing next year as being an exceptional, a phenomenal year for the U.S. economy. That will be good news for those like the airlines.

After the break, we'll talk to one of the top executives at United Airlines about how they're preparing for the reopening and also lady Carnarvon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:00]

QUEST: Welcome back. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. First-quarter earnings from IAG, that's the owners of British Airways, Iberia and others is a stark warning.

IAG says passenger capacity is down by 94 percent. Now, it's planning a meaningful return. The phrase they're using in their results meaningful

return to service by July. It's looking to defer 68 aircraft deliveries over the next three years, but does not expect passenger travel to recover

to last year's levels until 2023. United Airlines in the U.S. is expected to cut management by 30 percent in October, and pilots are being -- are

being braced for change. At the same time, the chief operating officers asked employees to seriously think about voluntary separations.

United, of course, is somewhat hamstrung on what it can do until September by terms of its agreements with the federal government. Josh Ernest is the

chief communications officer at United Airlines. Josh joins me now. Thank you, sir. And when I listened to the results from those like IAG, and I

hear what you're suffering at United, it raises the question -- it really does raise the existential question of whether and how you will exist?

JOSH ERNEST, CHIEF COMMUNICATION OFFICER, UNITED AIRLINES (via Skype): Yes, Richard, it's nice to be with you today, so thank you for the opportunity.

Listen, this is an extraordinarily challenging time for our industry, and there's just no downplaying it. We've never seen demand drop so sharply, so

deeply and stay down for so long. So, there is a difficult crisis that we're going through right now. Just to put that in perspective to, you

know, for your viewers, we expect in the month of May to fly fewer customers than we did on the typical day in May last year. So, the drop in

demand is dramatic.

But Richard, there is one thing that we do remain confident in, which is that for as powerful is this technology is, it allows us to do this

interview, it's no replacement for an in-person interaction. There are people sitting at home right now that are disappointed that they're missing

out on attending graduations and weddings, important business meetings or meetings with customers and clients or employees. Those in-person

interactions are just essential to business and to our lives. And that is what airlines provide whether it is traveling around the United States or

around the world.

QUEST: So, as a global carrier, how do you restart your business? IHG, the hotel group says it will probably start domestically, and they do not see

long term, long haul international intercontinental travel. Now, that's a large part of your business. So, how will you restart the international

parts of your business?

ERNEST: Yes, well, Richard, what we have done is we've scaled back our international business, but we haven't turned it off. They're about 19

international flights that we continue to operate daily, right now. And that's going to ramp up to nearly 30 next month. So, we're still serving

critical markets and we take that as a point of pride. Right now, we're the only airline in the world that is serving Australia from the United States.

[15:40:11]

And we're the only U.S. airline that is serving Israel from the United States. So, we're proud of that. And we are optimistic that the expertise

that we have in this area will give us an advantage, and certainly the loyalty that we have on our customers who travel us internationally and

rely on us to be able to do that safely, that's going to give us an advantage when people are ready to start flying again.

QUEST: The measures that you're taking and everything in some cases from keeping the middle seat empty to all these other measures of masks and the

like, is it possible to have mass transit in an era of social distancing?

ERNEST: Richard, I think the answer to that is yes. And that is why we're going to such great lengths, to reassure the public about the safety and

cleaning measures that we have put in place, we're carefully following the advice of medical professionals who obviously are in the best position to

determine what we need to do to ensure that we're keeping everybody safe. But when you think about what we're doing with masks, we're requiring

everybody on board our flights, whether it's a customer or employees wear a mask, we're overhauling our cleaning procedures and using devices that they

typically use in hospitals to disinfect hospital rooms.

We're using that to disinfect the interior of our aircraft. And we're going to be doing that before every single flight starting next month. We're

overhauling our boarding procedures to board back to front to minimize the congestion in the aisle while people are boarding. There are a lot of

things that we can do to keep people safe and to reduce the risk of people being exposed to the Coronavirus. And we certainly are in an era where the

planes are not in most cases not that crowded. And we are able to socially distance on a plane. And we're trying to use this period when there are not

many -- not as many people flying to test out these new procedures and processes to make sure that they work when people do come back to flying

again.

QUEST: Josh, we'll talk more about it. Please come back and talk as this crisis continues and the planes start flying again. Aviation is an

important -- aviation airlines as a crucial part of QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Thank you, sir. Now, after the break, we stick with this idea of travel and

tourism. We visit Highclere Castle, perhaps better known as Downton Abbey. But Lady Carnarvon will be in the library after the break.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Music that's familiar to Downton fans, and the familiar sight of what is Downton Abbey, but is really Highclere Castle. The -- now, the

question for Highclere and how it is being run. Currently closed to fans, and little revenue coming in. Joining me now is Lady Carnarvon, the real,

of course, countess of the castle from Highclere in England. You're in the library, I believe, which again is very familiar. Lady Carnarvon, when many

of us when I heard about as the "VOICE OF THE CRISIS," I thought, well, hang on. Highclere must have made a lot of money out of Downton. Why are

they in crisis at the moment?

LADY CARNARVON (via Skype): Well, I think like many other businesses is incredibly tough times, and we've all fallen over a cliff. But sadly,

whilst it's a marvelous marketing platform, there's no direct cash from the success of the film. We survived by welcoming visitors every day through

the door. So, that is our revenue stream.

QUEST: How have you been managing so far? I mean, obviously, I know you've tried virtual cocktail parties and the like, but these are, at best,

minimal in terms of being able to keep staff on Have you been able to manage it, even with the U.K.'s job retention scheme?

CARNARVON: Well, we've furloughed probably about 15 or 18 of our key staff here. So, the staff left and my husband and I and a couple of others and

that's about it. So, it's quite tough times, it's long days, long hours, seven days a week, 12 hours a day. When the weather is beautiful, and I

haven't a chance to go outside. But it's the same as every business, we're all trying to see our way forward, to be creative, to be innovative. And to

create some virtual cocktail parties. We've got Highclere Castle gin is online. In America, we just started it.

So we're trying to follow that up. We're seeing what we can do to put our gift shop online. Not the same as having customers here, but it's better

than nothing. We've got an app. So, we're trying to turn this extraordinary beautiful 1200-year-old home and business into a kind of very modern, you

know, on it -- on its feet, virtual source of a little bit of income, a little bit of income, every little bit helps.

QUEST: So, let -- right. So, let's say because we want to be -- with "VOICE OF THE CRISIS," we're very keen that we look forward, not back. So, if the

U.K. does allow some form of easing of restrictions. And Lady Carnarvon, how easy will it be for you, because I know you're sort of working out

distances as people walk through the great hall and visit or visit the outside of house, how easy will it be to accommodate social distancing for

you?

CARNARVON: Well, in that we're very fortunate, and we're really missing seeing more of our customers, and all of their visitors and guests. I mean,

the grounds outside are very large. There's places to carpark, there's masses of lawns on which to have afternoon tea and picnics. So, we're

looking at takeaway food and we've been pacing out the distances through the castle pretending we're families and seeing how we can social distance

and how we can, you know, queue people outside. I thought we could use stanchions, marking out the Downton Abbey crew past to measure distance.

So, we're doing all we can, it needs to be fun and engaging. It's about laughter and friendship and we're sorely missing that. So we have to look

forwards. We have to see how we can rebuild the business going forwards and what we can offer our customers and how we can keep their goodwill.

QUEST: Right. Your Ladyship, we always have the promise at the end, I promise if you will accept that we'll bring QUEST MEANS BUSINESS to

Highclere and we'll do -- we'll do the program from there if you will allow us, Ma'am.

CARNARVON: I would love you to do the program from here and have afternoon tea. Perhaps we can do the program around that. It'd be wonderful, Richard,

yes, please.

QUEST: Another promise on the chart. Lovely to see you, Lady Carnarvon, thank you for joining us.

CARNARVON: Thank you.

QUEST: It's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS tonight live from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:00]

QUEST: Dubai world port is one of the world's largest ports companies. Obviously, Q1 was difficult. Now, they're really worried about what happens

in Q2. CNN's John Defterios is in Dubai.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Is the sort of another working day for Kelvin Kamande in one of the world's largest logistics operations

DP World in Dubai. He is used to wearing safety gear but now in this new reality, he has to take extra precautions, from wearing sanitized gloves to

a surgical mask, passing through a sanitation booth where he's disinfected, head to toe to a thermal scanner to check body temperature. On the bus

which takes him to the dock and one of the world's largest ports, social distancing is enforced. This is the new working reality as of now in 2020.

KELVIN KAMANDE, INVENTORY CLERK, DP WORLD: Good morning. How are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, good morning.

KAMANDE: We have four cranes working in this vessel.

DEFTERIOS: A massive container ship has just arrived into Dubai from China. Kelvin oversees the unloading of containers. But now he also plays a role

in ensuring that the new safety rules are adhered to.

KAMANDE: Take care of yourself, huh. Make sure you have your gloves and your sanitizer with you at all times, huh?

DEFTERIOS: The safety of DP World's 50,000-plus staff spread across 50 countries. It's just one of the many pressing issues for the man who has

been helping navigate this company for almost 40 years.

SULTAN AHMED BIN SULAYEM, GROUP CHAIRMAN & CEO, DP WORLD: We need to make sure our people are safe because we are vital in supplying food and

medicine in the beginning, and of course, goods and services that are needed.

DEFTERIOS: And so far, business has been steady. In the first quarter, DP World says it handled 17 million containers globally. But the CEO admits

it's set to be a difficulty year.

SULAYEM: Good news is the Chinese ports are operating, we have ports there that we are operating. Hopefully, other countries will follow. But

naturally, when you have lockdown and people aren't buying, there is no revenue for companies who are in the business. So naturally, food and

medicine, these are item will be continued to be needed. Maybe building materials and others are not as vital at the moment, but we are still

handling.

DEFTERIOS: Some analysts predict that global trade and container volumes could fall by as much as 10 percent this year. It will be the company's

second-quarter results before we begin to see the true impact of the COVID crisis. John Defterios, CNN Dubai.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:55:15]

QUEST: And we'll have a "PROFITABLE MOMENT" after the break. The markets are up. This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERNIE JOHNSON, CO-HOST, INSIDE THE NBA ON TNT: And the thing that's been difficult about this in terms of tried to get everybody on the same page is

the fact that there are different rules and different laws depending on the municipality and the state and everything else. So, I don't know. I mean, I

think it's an encouraging sign. But it -- but it's also one that, look, this may be something that works in, you know, this town but doesn't work

in this town, depending on what the -- what their government has done. So, I'll take it as any step like this, you know, is somewhat encouraging to

see that maybe we're making progress toward that. But in my thinking, there's just -- there's just so much that's uncertain right now, Brooke,

that it's hard for me to jump up and down and say, Oh, yes, we're about to play because --

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Totally. No, no, everything is so, so in limbo. But despite all of it, I know you Ernie have partnered with the league to

just to keep fans engaged, that it's a Twitter chat, #NBAtogether. Tell me about that, and then who have been some of your guests?

JOHNSON: Well, we've had -- we're designing it to talk to some of the most influential voices in the game. We started with Adam Silver. And the thing

that strikes me, Brooke, look, if I can go back to March 12th, the night after the NBA suspended play, we did a show in the Atlanta studio minus

Charles, who was in his hotel room, because he just been tested, you know, turned out that he tested negative. But on that night, there had been --

there were 40 deaths in the United States on March 12th, as I spoke with Adam Silver that night. And now, what are we, 73, 74,000 and it's not even

-- it hasn't even been even two months since then.

And I talked to Adam in the first installment of this NBA Together, and I said, How much more do you know now than you knew that night that we talked

and he said, not much. We're all in this thing, kind of that way trying to -- trying to read what the medical experts are telling us. What's going to

be the safe way to try to come back and start, restart sports again. We all want to see it. I mean, make no mistake, but we also know --

BALDWIN: Of course, we do. And I need to jump in and --

JOHNSON: We have to be -- we have to be so careful.

BALDWIN: We do.

END