It is not easy to overstate how Covid has devastated the aviation industry. In 2020, Airline revenues totaled $328 billion, which was 20% lower than the previous year. The sector is expected to continue shrinking in the following years until 2024 due to these aviation changes. Apart from the financial difficulties, the pandemics’ longer-term effects like hygiene and safety standards will be more obvious while digitalization will continue to define the travel industry. Mobile devices will be needed to store vaccine certificates. Covid 19 has changed the travel industry permanently Five basic aviation changes have arisen that need to be addressed. These changes are discussed below.
1. The Recovery Will Be Fed By The Leisure Industry
Business travel will take longer to recover. This is because remote work will continue in some form. In past crises, the leisure industry tended to rebound first. So as the pandemic subsides, the recovery of leisure trips will outpace the business travel recovery. Some carriers are highly dependent on business travel. Although leisure travelers fill most of the aircraft seats and help cover the costs, their financial contribution is negligible. Most of the profits are brought in by a few high-yielding passengers traveling in business class. But this category of passengers has reduced as a result of COVID-19. These aviation changes are the result of COVID-19.
In order to overcome this problem, the airlines should re-evaluate their pricing policy. Business travelers value direct travel over indirect flights. However direct flights are valued at a premium. On the other hand leisure, travelers don’t mind direct flights which are charged cheaper. The gap between the two prices needs to be reduced in order to be attractive to both categories. Network aviation changes for the lower business class may be necessary. Due to the low demands on the business class, it may require that wide-body aircraft which have lower unit costs rather narrow bodies are utilized less frequently. Therefore aircrafts such as A350s or B777s may be more in vogue.
