London: With the advent of the pandemic coronavirus the days of cheap flight tickets seem to be over as for now. Airline tickets had become affordable for many. But now with coronavirus changing physical distancing rules, airlines must increase ticket prices or go bust.
New sitting arrangements
A few days back SpiceJet demonstrated what new seating methods may be inside an aircraft. It showed that for a row of three seats, the middle one will remain empty. Similarly for a row of two seats, ticket for one will not be sold. It means that in most case flights at the most will be 50-60 per cent full. So airline companies to survive will have to hike ticket prices at least by 50 per cent, if not double it. It should be stated here that most airline companies both domestic and international will have to make such arrangements.
IATA’s concerns
Alexandre de Juniac, the director general of the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has said that ticket prices will certainly go up. “If the governments orders airlines to adopt physical distancing onboard aircraft, at least a third of seats would remain empty. Airlines will be forced to raise ticket prices by at least 50% or go bust,” Juniac has said.
The top IATA official has also said that if present prices are maintained airline companies will suffer huge losses. It will be impossible for any company to incur such heavy losses. So if there is paucity of passengers due to increase in ticket prices the company will have to shut down.
“The days of cheap flights are over if social distancing is enforced. If companies have to make minimum profit, prices will have to be increased substantially. Otherwise survival chances are very bleak,” Juniac opined.
IATA has also said since the outbreak of coronavirus in December last year, there has been a slump in air traffic. Booking airline tickets has gone down by 70 per cent since mid-January. With coronavirus still raging in192 countries across the world, no one knows when normalcy will return in the flying sector. Global and domestic growths for all airlines both domestic and international will be very slow… very slow indeed.
Fall in corporate bookings
Company and corporate bookings constitute close to 60% of the total income earned by India’s domestic flight industry. People used to travel by air to meetings, conferences and even social gatherings. Coronavirus has shown that meetings and conferences can occur over various social media platforms. So companies would prefer such meetings rather than flying in executives from different parts of India.
Consumer fright
An official associated with the tourism industry asserted that passengers will certainly decrease in domestic flights. “Weak consumer confidence amid recession fears will undermine a quick recovery,” the official said.
Iata’s chief economist, Brian Pearce has cited an example,. Pearce pointed to China, where air travel bounced back initially when domestic flights resumed in mid-February. However, at present the recovery had stalled with the number of domestic flights at just over 40% of pre-pandemic levels. In Australia, domestic flights are 10 per cent of pre-crisis levels… this is after the new COVID-19 infection rate has dropped down close to zero. It just goes to show people are afraid to travel now, Pearce opined.
The aviation body also said that it expects 2020 global passenger revenues to fall drastically. The global aviation industry will suffer losses to the tune of $314 billion.
It will be a while before you can think of flying cheap again. Coronavirus has changed that aspect of human lives also.
Agencies
