Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown can hit international travel and flights hard.
So hard, that India’s national carrier: Air India has decided to cancel flights to 5 European destinations, which were otherwise always in high demand.
Loss in revenue, low demand have been cited as the main reason.
Air India Cancels Flights To 5 European Cities
Air India will not operate any flights to: Madrid, Milan, Copenhagen, Vienna and Stockholm, as all the existing and future flights have been canceled.
An internal note by Commercial Division of Air India stated, “In view of the COVID situation, it has been approved by competent authority to close down following stations and become offline.”
The note further adds that all IBOs (international booking offices) in these cities will be asked to return back to India, and the existing offices will be handed over to GSA (general sales agent).
Although India has started international flights to UK, France, Germany under air bubbles, but canceling flights to Madrid, Milan, Copenhagen, Vienna and Stockholm is a strong indication that demand for international flights is at all time low, and it will take some time to recover.
When Can International Flights Be Normalized Again?
If we believe the predictions of IATA (International Air Transport Association), then international travel will take atleast 4 years to become normal.
Earlier, IATA had predicted that international travel can be back to the pre-Covid era by 2023, but as per a latest projection, the date has been extended by a year to 2024.
This is 4 years from now.
The projection has been made for global passenger traffic (revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs), as per pre-Covid era.
IATA has also predicted that global passenger traffic in 2020 will decline by whooping 55%, compared to 2019. Earlier, the prediction was 46% less traffic, compared to last year.
However, since the trials of vaccines is now in full swing, and Russia has even launched world’s 1st Covid-19 vaccine, we are hopeful that international travel will bounce back, sooner than IATA’s predictions.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.
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