The airline industry has been hit particularly hard by Covid 19. The virus outbreak has caused the governments of most countries to implement restrictions on traveling (Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Aviation, 2022). Thus, the regulatory implementations have negatively affected the standard revenue, business practices, and practices of airline companies. First, passengers were less keen to travel due to the testing regulations, limited resources, and the lack of need to travel for work. Another cause was the regulation themselves that implied a reduction in Covid-19 cases through quarantine measures. The low demand has caused the airlines to lose revenue ($372 bn), which was an unprecedented change in the industry (Economic impacts of covid-19 on Civil Aviation, 2021).
Flights were being canceled, and employees were laid off due to the challenging situation in which the corporations could not sustain airports with such a low passenger rate. The airline companies have experienced major economic challenges that have been facilitated by all the negative implications of the pandemic on civil aviation. As a result, fewer seats were being offered (-50%), and fewer passengers were able to travel via plane (-2,7 bn) (Economic impacts of covid-19 on Civil Aviation, 2021). The effect was slightly balanced out due to the fact that cargo flights have been less impacted or even increased in rates due to the transportation of medical supplies (Nižetić, 2020, p. 10953).
However, as vaccines became available and fewer restrictions were put in place, the situation has changed for the better in 2021. More opportunities have occurred due to the less rigid regulatory implementations, vaccination, and other beneficial factors. As exemplified in the relevant literature, the lost revenue in 2021 was slightly lower ($324 Bn). Even though these figures look dismal, the year 2021 has seen a slight improvement, with the years to come sure to be better and better.
References
Economic impacts of covid-19 on Civil Aviation. (2021). Web.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Aviation. (2022). Web.
Nižetić, S. (2020) ‘Impact of coronavirus ( COVID ‐19) pandemic on Air Transport Mobility, energy, and environment: a case study’, International Journal of Energy Research, 44(13), pp.10953–10961.