Light at the end of the tunnel?

16 months after India closed down its airspace for international flights, the situation still remains grim with mandatory social distancing norms creating new challenges for all stakeholders, explains AMEYA JOSHI

- AMEYA JOSHI

Starting in February of 2020, the Indian government started putting restrictions on flights to specific geographies. The coronavirus pandemic wasn't yet classified as a pandemic and was largely restricted to China and South East Asia. Then all of a sudden, there started cases from other parts of the world and India. By March, international flights were suspended and soon domestic flights too were grounded. Effective midnight of March 24, 2020 entire aviation came to a halt in the country.

Sixteen months since then, international air travel remains suspended. The regulator- Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) updates the monthly NOTAM with an extension for another month, one at a time. International travel has been restricted to air bubbles - which India has with 27 countries and Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) where mostly the Air India group carries passengers back from countries that are not allowing scheduled commercial flights.

At some point in time, the restrictions had started easing until the newer variants of coronavirus - now named Alpha, Delta and the likes started wave after wave of infections. The closures have been in focus in Asia Pacific while Europe and North America are opening up.

All major operational parameters in the passenger business were negative:

Passenger numbers are expected to plummet to 1.8 billion (60.5 percent down on the 4.5 billion passengers in 2019). This is roughly the same number that the industry carried in 2003.