TLI Staff
New Delhi: Most high frequency data show economic activities plummeting to record low but the freefall sparked by Coronavirus is yet to stop.
Domestic aviation sector is one of the worst affected with the total daily departures falling to 529 on May 30 after the flight services re-started after two months.
The air traffic data available on the website of aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows all scheduled airlines — Air India, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Air Sahara and other private carriers together clocked 1,98,406 departures in 2001.
This means that the daily departures back then nearly two decades back was 543, more than the current level!! The Coronavirus pandemic has really taken aviation, not only in India but globally, back in time.
The Indian carriers in 2001 had a total operational fleet size of 113. Nearly a dozen scheduled airlines now have a fleet size of almost 670 aircraft but over two-third of it remains grounded.
According to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) Fleet Database, the global number of active aircraft on May 18 was just 13,955 compared to more than 31,000 at the start of the year.
“This takes the fleet back to its 1996 size – almost two and a half decades ago,” the Sydney-based aviation consultancy said.
“Even mistier realms of history need to be trawled to find the comparable year for current flight numbers. The annualised equivalent of May-2020’s frequency decline of 66.5% year-on-year (source: OAG) takes the industry back to 1986 levels,” it added.
While the traffic is set to return it is likely to be slow with many industry experts predicting that it could take years before the pre-Corona level is reached. There has been no precedent of such a deep crisis and hence the damage may be more than what is being currently fathomed.
In 2001 when terrorists attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York global air traffic and it took airlines several years to recover.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that airlines’ total debt could balloon by 28% to $550 billion and it will weigh down airline recovery.
Barring IndiGo, most Indian airlines are in danger zone and would find it difficult to survive without government support.