In an article in the Journal of Airport Management, Roni Tidhar (2019) examines the effects of Covid-19 on the airline industry. In particular, he argues that despite the adversities previously faced by human beings, none was destructive in terms of its effects on the global economy, freedom of travel, and mental health like COVID-19. To support his thesis, he specifically examines the introduction of new regulations by global air transport regulators, and the entry of new stakeholders within the airport. He also touches on the despair arising out of media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, he also examines governments’ interventions to save the airline industry, how pure airport security has been affected by COVID-19, how new threat factors are exploiting the COVID-19 atmosphere, and airports push for innovation. Tidhar (2021) argues that the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic forced national air transport regulators to come up with new and updated procedures for air travel. He cites several regulators such as the International Civil Aviation Organization which produced Covid-19-related guidelines six months after Covid had been declared a global pandemic.
Further, new stakeholders such as healthcare officials entered the industry and wielded power that could determine who would fly and who would not. Tidhar (2021), also discloses that first responders and regular soldiers were also deployed in some airports and became part of the stakeholders. He also asserts that despite the air transport industry being accustomed to media scrutiny, the COVID-19 pandemic led to hysterical coverage of the industry. In particular, he singles out the fact that they were dubbed as the weakest link in the fight against COVID-19 (Tidhar, 2021). The financial toll on most operators persuaded governments around the world to intervene to rescue national and private carriers. The author also asserts that security at airports was affected as airlines laid off staff while others contracted the virus. Finally, he argues that the airline industry had to cope with new threats and that there is a concerted effort to push forward innovations that will sustain the airline industry in case of another pandemic.
The article exhibits several weaknesses and strengths when objectively evaluated. The claims made by Roni Tidhar (2021) on the severity of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the airline industry are weighty and well within the full spectrum of the effects of COVID-19 on air transport. Specifically, the airline industry was one the most negatively affected industries by COVID-19 in 2020. A report by McKinsey estimated that the global economic loss in the airline industry as a result of COVID-19 amounted to $32 billion or 42 percent (Bouwer et al., 2022). The report notes that inherent weaknesses in the airline industry including high fixed costs and variable revenues contributed significantly to the losses realized by airlines in 2020. Further, airlines in South Asia where the regulatory climate was more relaxed compared to the western hemisphere were more affected because they had previously enjoyed super profits. However, the report notes that the airline industry was not doing well before the pandemic despite favorable conditions (Bouwer et al., 2022). This fact is not highlighted in the article by Roni Tidhar (2021).
Tidhar’s (2021)article touches on the lack of a prompt legal or regulatory framework that the airline industry could adopt in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In his arguments, he especially highlights the several months that it took global airline regulators to draft aviation rules for travel during the pandemic. The claim while valid fails to consider the self-regulation that most airlines adopted while awaiting official regulation by authorities. Response to COVID-19 by the government, international bodies, and the healthcare industry was slow because the virus was novel. Additionally, in the first months, it was still not clear how it was spreading or who was at risk of contracting it. In response to this uncertainty, many players in the airline industry took the necessary steps of providing additional hygiene products, requiring travelers to put on masks, and deliberately flying at less than full capacity (Heiets & Xie, 2021).
Tidhar’s (2021) point on most airlines requiring governments to bail them out is perhaps his strongest point in the article. He specifically explores how airlines from the United States, Europe, Australia, Asia, and other regions needed government bailout money to remain afloat. The COVID-19 pandemic as Tidhar (2021) notes, exposed some of the inherent weaknesses in airline business models and operations which is that strong liquidity is needed to cover fixed costs, and also variable revenues degrade an airline’s liquidity position. In the US, the airline industry required tens of billions to remain afloat despite laying off most of their staff and grounding some airplanes. Such examples of bail-outs emphasize Tidhar’s (2021) claim on the destructiveness of the pandemic in terms of travel and the global economy. As a well-connected individual in the airline industry, Tidhar’s (2021) claims in the article carry weight but they should also be assessed for unconscious bias.
Roni Tidhar’s (2021) article on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the airline industry accurately states the massive economic damage that the airline industry incurred in 2020. However, the article fails to contextualize the loss in that the airline industry was not doing well before the pandemic. In addition, while criticizing the time it took for regulatory agencies to draw up new COVID-19-related regulations, he fails to mention the self-regulation that many airlines had implemented. Despite these weaknesses, the article’s point and emphasis on many airlines requiring to be bailed out accurately capture the dire financial situation that many airlines found themselves in after travel restriction due to the pandemic.
References
Bouwer, J., Krishnan, V., Saxon, S., & Tufft, C. (2022). Taking stock of the pandemic’s impact on Global Aviation. McKinsey & Company.
Heiets, I., & Xie, Y. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Aviation Industry.Journal of Aviation.
Tidhar, R. (2021). Airport security: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Airport Management, 16(2), 1–21.