Coronavirus has almost died down leaving the world breathing once again after two long years of suffocating in a dark tunnel. Life was confined to a dungeon of despondence with forlorn hopes to see the other end of a dreary night. Since, after every night there’s a dawn, this unprecedented period of pandemic too seems to be moving past fast and the life on this planet earth has begun turning the corner.
Pandemic has irrevocably taken its toll ravaging life. Billions of dollars were lost worldwide by airlines and over 200 million jobs. Aviation has been the worst-hit industry for the past two years. Many airlines have been decimated while some low-cost careers managed to barely survive. Now the good news is that towards the end of the pandemic air travel has come back roaring.
I have summarized, the bustling activities taking place in Air travel, and an overview of what lies ahead in a quick and safe restoration of industry, as follows.
Airlines upbeat about a vertical climb:
The aviation experts and executives are optimistic that once the major European airports are opened we are expecting a boom in travel demand which will initially outpace the supply.
“There’s so much pent-up savings among travellers that we are entering a super-cycle for travel demand in the next year or two” a senior airline executive.
Many premium and legacy airlines took a sigh of relief for they were on the verge of an existential crisis and now coming back to profitability. Experts say the recovery trajectory may vary by region, but since the UK reopened its borders recently the airlines saw a bump. Sentiments in the “C Suites” are quite bullish due to an unprecedented recovery pace. It is exponentially growing week by week.
The volume of business and leisure travellers shows a marked change. Few airlines in Europe claim the business travelling has taken lead over leisure travelling during recent weeks, as compared to the pre-pandemic times—–which is a surprise.
Premium carriers redoubling the capacity:
Given the long interval of travelling across borders and the subsequent desperation of excited travellers, all the Leading airlines of the U.S, Europe, Australia, Gulf states and far east are in a frenzied race of redoubling the capacity to beyond pre-pandemic level.
Emirates airline, the biggest operator of Airbus 380 superjumbos, already started a drastic project to retrofit 53 Boeing 777s and 52 superjumbos with premium economy cabins. This is 18 months retrofit plan to upgrade the fleet to a much-coveted level of modern air travel. The company is desperately wooing the engineering staff to meet the requirements for this state-of-the-art modification to go ahead on time.
Recruitment drives and recalling furloughs:
Major legacy and premium airlines have recalled all their furloughed staff and are busy hunting for more skilled staff from their rivals in the region.
Thousands of aeroplanes grounded during pandemic were mothballed before the furloughs started taking place. Most of the smaller airports with limited parking capacities forced the operators to send their planes to other countries just for long-term parking. Now the restoration of planes to airworthy conditions needs more technical people than the pre-covid level to achieve the unprecedented targets. Aviation professionals I.E pilots, engineers, technicians, ground handling and additional airport securities staff are once again in the highest demand worldwide.
Synergies between the stakeholders:
Moving towards the post-pandemic era requires strong partnerships and synergies among regional careers. Pandemic destroyed many airlines but there have been many mergers between like-minded giants to stay in the business. There are rumours of Gulf-based airlines i.e., Emirates, Etihad and Flydubai joining hands to make one flag career airline. More budget careers are expected to emerge in the skies in the coming years. Many Low-cost careers (LCC) were born during 2020/2021, with a determination to excel, and they successfully weathered the pandemic.
The cash-strapped aviation sector is struggling to cope with the travelers’ demand like the pre-pandemic era. A whole lot of issues that airlines have been battered with during the grounding of fleets in the last two years are causing hiccups in the smooth operations. Hence they fear the Staggering debt levels will lead to ticket price increases for which a larger role of the government is needed.
As the world’s leading holiday spots open up there will be a flood of latent demand of holiday travelers. A scenario bound to create bottlenecks such as delays due to lack of capacity on planes, the time needed to restore the operational preparedness by airlines in terms of crew and planes availability and support services. All this and much more will ultimately raise the short-term prices for travelers and the burgeoning cost for the airlines. In this unprecedented time, the states will have to come forward and act as an underpinning for a short-term solution till the business gets streamlined.
A novel action by the U.S government for a $1B discretionary Airport Terminal Programme funds. The funds will be used for the upgrade, modernization and rebuilding of airport terminals and other infrastructure.
In Europe too, the legacy airlines i.e., Lufthansa, Air Baltic and Portugal were rescued by respective governments in the form of bailouts, although with the strings attached.
Cashed-up flyers willing to buy upsells:
According to an Australian writer, an ex-colleague, Australians are travel-addict who spend billions each year for overseas trips. During the pandemic, they were forced to either save that money or spend it in the country.
The lavish cash stimulus was also showered by the government to appease the holiday-sick frustrated citizens. Reportedly during the pandemic period, the only country which had a tangible rise in GDP due to increased power of public spending. People went on a splurge of buying expensive luxury vehicles to compensate for their urge of travelling abroad to spend money. The idea was “if you cannot go to Milan, buy a Ferrari instead!
some premium airlines and travel agents claim their rich and desperate customers are gladly spending on upgraded upsells like luxury hotels and expensive cars.
Wrap up:
2022 is poised for a strong air travel recovery if governments remove restrictions quickly and take ownership of the aviation industry with much-needed financial support. If envisaged consciously, this aviation sector alone will be able to recover more than 58 million jobs and generate a revenue of around $8.6 trillion, which would spur economic recovery around the world.
