Last Updated : Sep 16, 2020 02:33 PM IST | Source: PTI

Revenues of Indian airlines fell by 85.7% in April-June period due to COVID-19: Hardeep Singh Puri

Moreover, employee count at the Indian carriers went down from 74,887 on March 31 to 69,589 on July 31, a decrease of 7.07 percent, Puri stated in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

PTI

live

bselive
nselive

Volume

Todays L/H

More

The revenue of Indian airlines fell by 85.7 percent to Rs 3,651 crore during the first quarter of 2020-21 in comparison to the corresponding period a year ago due to COVID-19, said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday.

Moreover, employee count at the Indian carriers went down from 74,887 on March 31 to 69,589 on July 31, a decrease of 7.07 percent, Puri stated in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

"The revenue of airport operators has reduced from Rs 5,745 crore during April-June 2019 to Rs 894 crore during April-June 2020,” he said.

Close

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show

related news

The minister said the employee count at airports has reduced from 67,760 on March 31 to 64,514 on July 31.

Scheduled domestic flight services were suspended in India from March 25 to May 24 due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. They were resumed from May 25 but in a curtailed manner.

The employee count at ground handling agencies fell by 22.44 percent to 29,254 in April-July period, Puri said.

In his written reply, Puri was giving information about the "impact of COVID-19 on the civil aviation sector”.

"The revenue of Indian carriers has reduced from Rs 25,517 crore during April-June 2019 to Rs 3,651 crore during April-June 2020,” the minister said.

Air India’s total revenue has reduced from Rs 7,066 crore during April-June 2019 to Rs 1,531 crore during the first quarter of 2020-21, Puri stated.

Puri stated the domestic air traffic in the country fell to 1.2 crore during March-July period as compared to 5.85 crore in the year-ago period.

International traffic dropped to 11.55 lakh in March-July period as compared to 93.45 lakh in the year-ago period, he added.

Scheduled international flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

However, special international passenger flights have been operating in India under Vande Bharat Mission since May and under bilateral air bubble arrangements formed between India and other countries since July.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here.

First Published on Sep 16, 2020 02:33 pm