Impact of Covid-19 on Global Aviation
Aviation industry has been on a rise since many years. It was expected to grow for many years to come. But, Coivd-19 has brought the whole world to stand-still. The disease originated from Wuhan, China in January 2020. It quickly spread to other countries, forcing all the nations to impose strict lock-downs in their countries around the world. All the businesses and industries have been effected by the pandemic. However, no other industry has been severely compromised than aviation industry. Due to being a capital intensive industry, the aviation companies around the world operate with very thin profit margins. So, any kind of grounding or fall in passenger demand would be disastrous for any airline. In this article, we are going to explore the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on airlines around the world and on the global aviation industry as a whole.
Travel Bans around the world
When the disease started to spread in mainland China, during early part of 2020, many airlines operating flights to mainland China started cancelling their flights to Chinese destinations, in order to stop the spread of Covid-19. This had relatively small impact on their overall revenue and flight operations. However, when the spread of the disease started to accelerate in other parts of Asia, Europe and North America, we saw sharp drop in demand for air travel. People didn’t want to travel on airplanes as they were a primary area to catch the disease. Many countries imposed a 14 day mandatory quarantine for people coming affected region, later this was imposed for all international destinations.
But the major impact happened, when countries started imposing travel bans for passengers coming from international destinations, instead of mandatory 14 day quarantine. US President Donald Trump suspended flights across Atlantic from Europe in mid March. Later, many countries completely banned any kind of travel, by suspending all international and domestic flights. This made life very difficult for airlines, since they had no revenues coming from ticket sales, and they also had to issue refunds for the cancelled flights. And for an industry, that operates on thin profit margins.
The travel ban restrictions were imposed since the disease spreads very rapidly from person to person, and aviation industry was considered a major factor in spreading the disease around the world. Due to close proximity of passengers and re-circulation of pressurized air could infect more passengers on a plane if a infected passenger boarded the flight. Airports posed similar threat as the aircrafts. The travel restrictions are going to be kept in-place until the disease comes under control, and airlines have to bear these tough times. But, the bigger challenge for the airlines would be convincing passengers and give them confidence to fly with them.
Grounding of the Aircrafts around the World
When there is no public demand for air travel, and air travel remains suspended due to travel bans. What do you do with your aircrafts? You ground them or park them at an airfield for a long term or short term storage. However, airlines still have to perform maintenance work on their aircraft depending on the length of storage. These maintenance tasks is required to be carried out in few days on the grounded aircraft, depending on the type of grounding. Hence, these grounded aircrafts are still consuming money of airlines, who are already short of capital. Some airlines are even operating ghost flights, or flights nearly empty to keep their aircraft in operational state. Some airlines are doing the same due to rules concerning the airport slots.
For grounding of the aircraft, airlines usually choose airfields in dry climate such as deserts, so that their precious aircrafts are safe from corrosion. The ‘boneyard’ in New Mexico became a prominent place for Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines to park their planes. Emirates used their alternative hub, the Dubai World Central Airport (30 miles from DXB) to ground their planes. Some airlines like Cathay Pacific and KLM, used their hub airports to park their fleet. However, some of these aircrafts might never return to service. KLM and Qantas announced that they would be retiring their Boeing 747s from their fleet. This marked an end of an era, as 747 had prominent history with both these airlines since many years. Lufthansa announced that they would be retiring some of their Airbus A380s. American Airlines announced that they would be accelerating their retirement of their Boeing 757s and 767s. Airlines taking such drastic steps to reduce their fleet size, since airlines don’t expect demand for air travel to catch up to the record numbers till many years. Hence, airlines are retiring their old, or less fuel efficient aircrafts to control their costs. Airbus A380 finds itself in quite difficult situation, as there won’t be enough demand for air travel for airlines to use the aircraft, and to justify the higher cost of fuel and maintenance for the large super-jumbo.
Aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, might face some aircraft order cancellations as airlines might struggle to pay for the ordered aircrafts. This might lead to job dismissals as well. Airbus and Boeing also had to suspend production of aircrafts, as due to restorations for manufacturing industries. Tough times are ahead for both Airbus and Boeing as well.
Until situation gets improved, these birds might not be going anywhere. Airlines are losing money hand-over-fist since these planes make money only when they are in sky, carrying paying passengers, instead of sitting on the ground. However, for some aircrafts, like Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, this might their ultimate faith. Passengers have long enjoyed these aircraft for their comfort. But, for airlines its now matter of survival, which requires some harsh decisions.
Closure of Airlines
When there are no passengers are flying, no ticket revenue is coming, aircrafts are grounded and demanding money for maintenance, this is a perfect recipe for an airline to close. Airlines around the world are cutting costs, in the bid to survive. Retiring or selling few aircrafts to raise capital, and cutting salaries and jobs of employees are few steps being taken airlines around the world. But, for some airlines these steps might not be enough. We already saw, FlyBe and Thomas Cook collapse recently, before the pandemic started. Airline industry is a tough place to compete during normal circumstances, and it is hard for many players to survive. In recent years, due to rise in fuel prices, we saw more than ten airlines shut down their businesses. And now, due to this pandemic, many analysts believe we are going to see many more airlines go burst, like what we saw after 9/11 in early 2000s. The players who survive this, are going to experience loss of flying public, even greater than what world witnessed after 9/11.
We saw Virgin Australia going into administration, becoming one of the first victims. South African Airways, which has struggling since many years, might not be able to survive this pandemic. Airlines would be requiring bailouts from their governments, in order to survive. Governments around the world would need help airlines, as they employ large amount of citizens of their country, and some airlines represent as symbol of national pride for their nation.
Role of Aviation in fighting Covid-19
If aviation has been the worst hit by Covid-19, it has done one of the biggest contributions in fighting it as well. Cargo airlines around the world have been carrying necessary supplies from the around the world like masks and ventilators, in order to combat Covid-19. Many airlines are even using their passenger planes to carry the supplies. Some airlines using passenger seats to carry the boxes of supplies, and some are removing passenger seats altogether, and converting their passenger aircrafts into essentially a cargo aircraft. Even worlds biggest aircraft, Antonov 225, is being used to haul cargo medical supplies. We are also witnessing a 40 year old McDonnell Douglas Dc-8, in helping supply essentials for fight Covid-19. KLM used some of their retried 747–400s for cargo operations to carry supplies. Airbus is trying to develop techniques to place cargo pallets inside converted passenger cabins. Airbus aircraft manufacturer used their A350–1000 to bring essential supplies from China.
Aviation has not only been limited to cargo operations only. Due to the placement of travel restrictions, many people have been stranded away from their homes. Many citizens have been stranded in other countries, due to travel restrictions. Hence, many countries have arranged special repatriation flights, with all necessary health protocols in place, to bring back their stranded citizens from other countries. We saw Austrian Airlines operating a direct flight from Vienna to Sydney using their Boeing 777–200ER, a 17 hour flight, becoming the longest flight for the airline ever, to bring back Austrian citizens. LOT Polish airlines also operated flights to Australia and South America to bring back its citizens. Swiss International Airlines, Lufthansa, and El Al airlines also operated repatriation flights to bring their citizens back. Wamos airlines brought back European citizens struck at a cruise ship from Honolulu to Frankfurt, on a 15 hour flight. Many other airlines around the world also helped in bringing citizens back to their homeland, here we only discussed a few. Qatar Airways used their hub at Doha to continue operations of flight, to become the only hope for stranded passengers to travel back to their home. Airline used world’s biggest passenger aircraft, Airbus A380, to increase their capacity.
Many of these flights were not possible without the the airline crew. Most of them didn’t even worried about their own safety against Covid-19, and many of them didn’t even got paid for doing this work, as airlines are themselves struggling financially. Their passion for their work, and their passion for flying fueled them in volunteering for these repatriation and cargo flights, to help the world fight Covid-19.
Covid-19 has brought aviation to its knees. Probably many airlines and aircrafts won’t be here with us in future. But, aviation industry would strike back, and will come back to its prime. After all, even aircraft requires to face head-wind in order to take-off.
