Air travel nosedives as COVID spreads | Economic Times

As the second wave of Covid-19 grips the nation, demand for air travel demand has taken a sharp hit. Stricter norms and sporadic lockdowns by some state governments have led to people cancelling plans. As a result, airlines are slashing flights and grounding planes.Senior executives said there will be more drastic cancellations in the coming weeks, more fleets will be grounded and employees will again be sent on leaves without pay or laid off. In the past few days, most airlines have cancelled 20%-35% of their flights and are now flying 45%-60% of their pre-Covid capacity. Between January and mid-March, most of them had increased capacity to almost 80% owing to a recovery. 82190961“In the next few days, you will see flight schedules slumping like a deck of cards. This month and the next will be very bleak,” said a senior executive at a low-fare carrier.Data from the ministry of civil aviation showed air traffic has been consistently falling in the last 10 days. Departures on April 20 were down 41% to 155,207, while flight movements fell 22% to 4,583 compared to the same date in March.This slump reverses the recovery made since December. Air traffic had grown from 6.3 million in November to 7.8 million in February.AirAsia India was the first to cut capacity last to 45% of pre-Covid levels from 76% in February and SpiceJet cut it to 60%, said a senior executive.A spokesperson for SpiceJet said that clubbed with charter flights, the cut is 26%. IndiGo has reduced it to 65% from 78%, said people close to the development. “The more cash-strapped airlines will ground more planes and lay off staff,” said a senior airline executive.