Hyderabad: More than 30 lakh jobs are at risk in India's aviation and dependent sectors in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to global airlines’ conglomerate, International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The latest estimates of IATA also revealed that the passenger demand had dropped to 49 per cent as compared to the estimates of 2019 in the country.
This decline in demand has also resulted in a revenue drop of about USD 11.61 billion (around Rs 87,000 crore) for airlines operating in the Indian market resulting a potential impact on 30.60 lakh jobs which is the highest as compared to any other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
In fact, Asia-Pacific was the first region to feel the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis.
As per IATA’s estimates, the region’s airlines will see passenger demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometres, RPK) collapse 53.8% this year, while capacity (in available seat kilometres, ASK) will be reduced by 39.2%.
“2020 is the worst year in aviation history and airlines are in survival mode. The carriers in Asia-Pacific will experience the largest losses at $29 billion. That’s a loss of $30.09 per passenger,” said Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Regional Vice President for the Asia Pacific.
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Earlier, the aviation association body had called for immediate government action for countries like India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand on a priority basis.
“It will take a few years for the industry to get back to 2019 levels of activity. In the interim, governments will need to continue providing financial relief and assistance to airlines as well as flexibility in slot usage,” said Clifford.
To keep struggling airlines afloat the body had proposed a combination of direct financial support, loans, loan guarantees and tax relief as measures to bail out the aviation sector.
Notably, IndiGo CEO on Friday said that the current demand shows that the airline will reach 80 per cent of the pre covid capacity by early next year.
Currently India's largest airline IndiGo is operating at 30 per cent of its capacity.
In the wake of coronavirus pandemic India suspended all scheduled domestic and international passenger flights on March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic and nearly two months after the lockdown, domestic flights in India started operating in a calibrated manner from May 25.
(With Inputs from agencies)
