Asia-Pacific airlines will see passenger demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPK) collapse 53.8% during 2020, while capacity (in available seat kilometers or ASK) will reduce by 39.2%, as compared to the previous year, IATA said
Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region, including India, are the hardest hit by covid-19 pandemic, and are expected to report losses to the tune of $29 billion during calendar year 2020, aviation industry group International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday.
Asia-Pacific airlines will see passenger demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPK) collapse 53.8% during 2020, while capacity (in available seat kilometers or ASK) will reduce by 39.2%, as compared to the previous year, IATA said in a statement.
“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 Asia Pacific.
“It will take a few years for the industry to get back to 2019 levels of activity," added Clifford.
According to IATA, airline industry globally are expected to report losses to the tune of $ 84.3 billion during calendar year 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, air passenger demand in India is expected to decline by 49% during 2020, as compared to the previous year. The covid-19 pandemic is expected to result in over three million job losses across the aviation sector and other sectors related to it like tourism and hospitality.
The Indian government grounded domestic aviation for two month between 25 March to 25 May. Though the domestic commercial air services were allowed to resume, albeit in a limited capacity, international flights are grounded at least till 31 July.
The pandemic has hurt the Indian airlines badly, who in turn have resorted to various cost cutting measures, including reduction of salaries, job cuts, renegotiating contracts with vendors, etc, to survive the current crisis.
Indian airlines, excluding market leader IndiGo, will need to raise a minimum of $3.5 billion to survive the grounding due to the lockdown imposed to contain covid-19, aviation consultancy firm Capa India said last month.
Domestic traffic is expected to decline to about 55 million this fiscal while international traffic is expected to fall to about 20-27 million during the current fiscal, because of subdued travel demand following the pandemic, Capa India added.
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