Implications of COVID19 on Aviation Industry Shruti Chauhan

Implications of COVID19 on Aviation Industry

 Shruti Chauhan 

 Cloudy Skies For Airlines( Passenger Flights):

·        Vistara:  Domestic carrier Vistara, a joint venture has made “temporary” adjustment to select services from, and to, Bangkok and Singapore. As of now 20 flights between Delhi and Bangkok, 26 flights between Mumbai and Singapore and 8 flights between Delhi and Singapore have been cancelled in march 2020. Vistara said in a statement  March that it has waived cancellation charges for domestic tickets booked on or before March 12.

·        Go Air: Low-budget carrier  Go Air is dealing with a similar situation. Go Air  has also temporarily suspended certain flights to Bangkok and Phuket sector, post and advisory issued by the Saudi government on not allowing non Saudi residents to enter its tertiary, Go Air has temporarily suspended their other operations also. According to a senior executive at GoAir, A320Neo planes due to problems at the plane and engine maker. Now this has become a blessing in a disguise for GoAir.

·        Air India: National carrier Air India has cancelled its flight to Shanghai and Hong Kong till June 13. It has reduced frequency on the Delhi desk Singapore route from 7 to 5 days now. Air India plans to operate a smaller A 320 to Saudi Arabia instead of the Boeing 747 and Boeing 777 due to suspension of annual Haj pilgrimage on march 2020.

·         Indigo: India’s biggest carrier said that it has seen a 20% decline in fresh bookings. Usually Indigo sells more than1.5 million tickets a week. But because of covid-19 Indigo is also facing a declining situation. An airline executive confirmed that cancellations have increased.

·         Spicejet:  In spicejet there were cancellations on some routes; Spicejet has been trying to garner traffic by offering flash sales of fares as low as Rs 987.

These are the few passenger flights which are surviving due to the corona virus, and continuously waiting for good news from the Indian government, but there is another category of flight which is still in use. So, let’s talk about The Cargo Flights.

A clear sky For Airlines (Cargo Flights):

Government first gave a proposal to the National carrier Air India to convert its plane into cargo planes by removing seats.  But AI rejected governments this proposal by saying it is not possible to remove the seats due to logistical hurdle. In this situation,The government has allowed airlines to carry cargo in their passenger aircraft, which are grounded at various airport, and approvals from the aviation regulator- Directorate General of Civil Aviation.    

The Aviation Ministry, in a tweet also said that they are working with private airlines to transfer material required to test and control the spread of coronavirus.

Shruti Chauhan MBA 
Manager Aviation 
AirCrews Aviation Pvt Ltd
shruti.chauhan@AircrewsAviation.com  
www.portrait-business-woman.com/2020/04/shruti-chauhan.html

LinkedIn:  

http://www.linkedin.com/in/shruti-chauhan-70778818b