Aviation Sector to Take Upto 24 Months to Recover from COVID-19 Blow, Survey Reveals

The aviation business might take between six months to 2 years to get better from the extreme blow dealt by the coronavirus pandemic, in response to a survey carried out by international consultancy ICF.

The survey, carried out amongst senior and mid-level executives from internationally between late March and early April, additionally revealed that there could also be elevated scrutiny positioned on the well being and sanitary situations of particular person international locations that would impression air service and passenger demand.

“The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a total or partial shutdown of their business. As to how long business activity will remain depressed, nearly half of respondents expect the slowdown to last three to four months.

“One-third of respondents, nevertheless, suppose it may final 5 months to 1 12 months. In distinction, almost half of respondents anticipate restoration will take as much as two years,” as per the survey.

“Not solely are we going through essentially the most profound exercise slowdown in aviation historical past, however respondents are additionally anticipating a gradual street to restoration. Just over one-third of respondents anticipate exercise will return to pre-crisis ranges inside a 12 months,” it stated.

Given how deep the present crisis is and the growing probability that it will trigger a global recession, ICG said it expects the recovery period to be significantly longer than the respondents’ expectations.

“It is necessary to recollect, nevertheless, that site visitors has all the time come again,” it added.

At the same time, the survey observed regional differences in the respondents’ views on the period of recovery, with those in Asia being most optimistic about the future rebound in business activity.

As much as 60 per cent of the respondents in Asia said they expect full recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels in less than 12 months. This is related to the relative success many Far East countries appear to have had in containing the pandemic, with countries like South Korea and China slowly returning to work, it said.

On the other hand, respondents in Europe and North America are the least optimistic, with two-thirds of respondents expecting the recovery to take up to two years or more, as per the survey findings.

According to the survey, as many as 50 per cent of the respondents indicated that a customer will prefer a direct flight than with a stop-over post-COVID 19, while another 46 per cent were of the opinion that it may give rise to the demand for private jets.

“Nine out of 10 respondents anticipate the widespread adoption of video conferencing options for work and training, which might undoubtedly impression the demand for air journey. The implications for enterprise journey, a lot of which is pushed by intra-company conferences, might result in lowered demand,” the survey stated.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has launched new practices (resembling social distancing and telecommuting), raised hygiene consciousness, and elevated the recognition of video conferencing. One or two weeks within the quarantine might completely change peoples behaviour –but how about one or two months?

“We have never witnessed a social experiment of such magnitude and on such a wide scale, but it would be naive to think the new normal will be identical to the one we knew before COVID-19 upended our lives,” it stated.