With Covid-19 hitting the aviation industry hard, travel companies are finding it hard to survive. Many of them have either closed down, forcing their employees to leave, or are opting for the bankruptcy route.
The airline industry has been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The abrupt and deep crisis is financially putting air transport under a strain.
Many tourist attractions around the world, such as museums, amusement parks and sports venues, are closed. Many countries have also imposed a ban on foreign travel due to which many are stuck overseas and are not able to get back to their homes.
“The pandemic has devastated global tourism, the entire travel industry has come to a halt,” said Kamal R. Jadhwani, CMD of Tulip Travel Services Pvt Ltd. He emphasied: “We are acutely conscious of the challenges we are facing and we have the cash flow issue. Ours is the last industry which will revive. The industry will suffer huge losses and many airlines and agents have already removed their staff and the unemployment percentage is going high.”
He further added, “Whenever there has been any major impact on the economy of any country, tourism has always been the first one to get affected as people start to cut down on their travel budgets first. However, tourism relatively had a direct role to play when it comes to Covid-19 which has widely spread most in the countries with a high number of tourists. As of 2019, 4.2 crore jobs were created in the tourism sector in India which was 8.1 per cent of total employment in the country.”
A Mumbai-based travel industry analyst too hinted at grim times and said that things won’t improve anytime soon. “This leaves most travel companies with just one option—to close down. Many of them don’t have deep pocket to survive the pandemic,” he said.
As do m e st i c flights in India have resumed, the battle to avoid the coronavirus infection is becoming more challenging. Hygiene and sanitation practices to ensure customers feel completely safe and one-metre distance between every passenger has been undertaken by the airline authorities.
India is slowly gearing up for the second phase of the unlock plan. People are stepping out to embrace the new normalcy with face-covers and social distancing.