Abstract
The authors deal with the unprecedented effects of COVID-19 on the air transport sector and the reactions of selected segments to this situation. Air transport is a global industry, and this situation needs to be addressed through cooperation at an international level. The authors focus on the airport and airline sector, which, due to the nature of their business, chooses a different strategy. Despite the need for international cooperation, there are also efforts to use the crisis situation for its own expansion into vacant market segments, especially by selected low-cost air carriers. The strategic starting points of international organizations for individual sectors are given as well as examples of selected airport entities and airlines. The chapter is complemented by a common approach of airports and air carriers, which could significantly affect the cost of air transport, especially in the EU.
TopImpact Of Covid-19 On Air Transport
One such phenomenon that has significantly affected most sectors of human activity is the Coronavirus disease pandemic. It first appeared in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019, and especially since March 2020, it has gradually affected air traffic around the world under the better-known acronym COVID-19 and has brought devastating economic and social impacts to many areas. The authors, therefore, focus on the unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 crisis, due to which the International Air Transport Association (IATA) itself has identified 2020 as the worst year of air transport demand (IATA 2021).
Revenues of air carriers in passenger-kilometers (RPK indicator) decreased by 65.9% year-on-year, ie the most in the entire history of aviation. Due to the temporary closure of borders between some countries or the need to pass covid tests with a negative result, this decrease was logically most pronounced on international routes, where there was a decrease in available seat kilometers (ASK) by 75.6%. It was decreased by 26.8 percentage more than on domestic routes.
The most significant impact was felt by a hub and spoke carriers relying mainly on a developed network of directly operated foreign destinations. The average occupancy of aircraft has also changed. The seat load factor (SLF) decreased by 19.2% to 62.8% for international flights and by 17% to 66.6% for domestic flights. Better results were achieved by air transport of goods, where the cargo tonne-kilometer (CTK) indicator decreased by only 10.6% and the cargo load factor (CLF) by 7.7%. During the most-strict measures in April 2020, 7,000 of the total number of approximately 8,000 commercial aircraft were grounded in Europe (Eurocontrol 2021). In this phase, the maintenance departments of the airlines or separate MROs played an important role. They had to be able to preserve the aircraft, perform ongoing maintenance and at the same time to be ready to restore the aircraft to airworthiness in a short time. (Serrano and Kazda, 2021)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Decarbonization Programs: Programs dedicated to reducing 'carbon intensity' and decreasing the level of produced greenhouse gas emissions.
Airline Alliances: Partnerships between or among airlines usually concluded to share resources, pick up or extend partner routes, provide marketing branding, or offer the ability to earn and redeem miles through each others’ rewards programs.
COVID Crisis: Global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ongoing from 2019 till today (2021).
EU Rehabilitation and Resilience Facility (RRF): European Comission´s fund established to provide financial support for investment and reforms to decrease the economic and social impact of the COVID Crisi and make European economies more sustainable.
Fluctuations in Demand: Increase and decreas in purchasing activity caused by direct and/or indirect influences.
Airports Council International: Global representative of more than 1.900 world's airport providing support to the airports by working with governments, regional ACI members, experts, and international organizations.
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO): International governmental organization and a specialized and funding agency of the United Nations established by the Chicago Convention currently consisted of 193 national governments with the aim to support their diplomacy and cooperation in air transport.