The international airline industry is getting disrupted due to COVID-19 spread on a large scale. All the countries have imposed a complete ban on international airlines. And it has been disrupting the global airline industry and the revenue loss in this sector is rising continuously. As per the available data till March 20, the total revenue loss reached the mark of $880 billion.
In order to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, different countries have declared a complete or partial lockdown. Due to this, the global airline industry is halted completely and it is bearing a huge loss. Different domestic and international airlines are only left for carrying out essential cargo items in different parts of the world.
According to experts, the coronavirus pandemic has left the world in the worst recession phase than the year 2008 and it will have an adverse impact in the long term. Some economists have even stated that the global economy has entered a tailspin and a massive job loss is underway.
At the time of writing this statement, the total number of coronavirus infected cases has crossed the mark of 14 lakhs. And over 80,000 deaths have been reported in different parts of the world. The European countries and the US are the worst affected nations with the number of deaths seeing no decline. Italy, France, Germany, and Spain have got over 50,000 deaths to date.
The cancellation of flights and the imposition of country-specific restrictions have affected all the international flights on a large scale. Different airlines are only being involved in repatriation work and they have been supplying essential goods such as medicines from one country to other parts of the world.
Since 24 March 2020, the UAE based Etihad Airlines has suspended all its operations and the UAE government has kept the Abu Dhabi airport closed for travelers. The sudden imposition of lockdown across the world has left many people stranded in different parts of the world. Some of the domestic airlines are being used by countries for the repatriation of citizens from other parts.
No exact information can be derived about the timings of the closure of lockdown and hence nothing can be said about the start of the operations of different airlines. The impact of coronavirus started showing its results from the month of February as China saw a sharp drop in the airlines’ operations. As compared to the February month of 2019, the country witnessed a decline of 71% in flights.
Earlier in the March month, Europe started experiencing a sharp drop in flights and the situation has intensified a lot. A steep downfall in flights has been noticed in European countries and it has left them in a disrupted state. At present, almost every international airline is experiencing a huge loss and it is evident from many available statistics.
Even if the travel ban is lifted after some time then also it would be difficult for international airlines to recover the loss they have incurred during the lockdown period. Many billion-dollar loss is on the cards and this will impact the international airline industry in the long-run. Even some of the airlines are asking for a bailout package from their governments and many international airlines are facing the fear of bankruptcy in the near future.