Any sort of epidemic has severe consequences on our daily lives as well as important business fields. It affects directly or indirectly but certainly has a widespread influence on people and their work. Likewise, the coronavirus outbreak has led to a sudden fall in the airline industry as many flights have been cancelled due to the fear of contagion. Moreover, the U.S government has landed upon a decision to ban most travel from Europe or Asia propelled by the growing spread of the disease. This has cost a downfall in the overall revenue in the airline business ranging to $63 billion to $113 billion this year.
Ravi Sarathy, a Northeastern University professor of International Business and Strategy says that “the airlines will take some time to bounce back, but the effect on their bottom line would not be cataclysmic”. According to him, this impact on the economy would last up to six months in quarters divided into April to June and July to September, by then the business will start picking up from where it had left. He suggests that in this period, the leisure travellers can look out for bargain flight deals but the decline in air travel demand has made several airlines slash many domestic and international services which can stop the decrease in flight fares. However, Delta, United Airlines, JetBlue, and American Airlines have taken steps and have reduced 25 per cent of international flights and 10 per cent of domestic flights.
COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease that had infected nearly 155,000 people around the world and has killed over 5000 people, primarily in China’s Hubei province, where the outbreak originated. So, Sarathy thinks that the Asian carriers have been impacted the most like the Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. This has a drastic influence on the tourism industry. Moreover, the airline companies have stopped hiring employees which have affected the local economy.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has planned to help the industries that have been affected by the pandemic and are striving to cooperate in a global emergency.
Rubena Bose