As per the recent report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Covid-19 crisis is expected to impact over 29 lakh (2,932,900 to be precise) jobs in India’s aviation sector.
A 47 per cent decline in the passenger traffic has been noticed in India amid the pandemic crisis. The impact on airlines’ revenue would be US$ 11.221 billion, indicating a fall in passenger revenue compared to 2019.
The IATA report shows that airlines in the Asia Pacific region will see the largest revenue drop of US$ 113 billion and a 50 per cent fall in passenger demand in 2020 compared to last year.
Conrad Clifford, IATA’s regional vice president, Asia Pacific has identified India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand as priority countries that need to take action.
“Providing support for airlines has a broader economic implication. Jobs across many sectors will be impacted if airlines do not survive the Covid-19 crisis. Every airline job supports another 24 in the travel and tourism value chain. In the Asia Pacific, 11.2 million jobs are at risk, including those that are dependent on the aviation industry, such as travel and tourism,” said Clifford.
IATA is calling for a combination of direct financial support, loans, loan guarantees and support for the corporate bond market and tax relief to contain the situation.
