TLI Staff
New Delhi: It is official now. Coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the aviation sector. Domestic airlines and airport operators saw their revenues plummeting 85% in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal while over 18,000 people lost their jobs by July-end.
In a written reply to question on aviation sector, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that Indian carriers logged a combined revenue of Rs 3,651 crore, one-seventh of the revenue earned in the same period last year.
Airport operators too bled equally heavily. Their revenue stood at Rs 894 crore in April-June, compared to Rs 5,745 crore in the first quarter of last fiscal.
With revenues dropping to record level, the sector saw massive job losses. As many as 5,289 staff had to part ways with their employers giving body blow to their personal finances.
In the airport segment, total workforce stood at 64,514 at the end of July, 2020 compared to 67,760 in March this year when Coronavirus had just started spreading in the country.
Executives and workers lost their employment in ground-handling and air cargo space also as companies let them go to stay afloat.
The most difficult time for the aviation sector was in April when commercial flights were ordered to be halted in the wake of virus spread.
“Due to COVID-19 pandemic, domestic air services have been restarted in a calibrated manner. Initially only one third (33%) of the summer schedule 2020 was allowed to be operated which was subsequently increased to 45% on 26 Jun 2020 and then to 60% on September 2, 2020,” Minister Puri said in the Upper House.
Airlines have sought several relief measures to tide over the crisis. The key demands are bringing jetfuel under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST), slashing excise duty on ATF to nil and additional unsecured credit of 60 days of consumption of ATF by the oil marketing companies.
They have also appealed for directing banks and financial institutions to defer repayment of loans.
