EXPLORING COVID-19 PANDEMIC: ITS IMPACT TO GLOBAL AVIATION INDUSTRY AND THE KEY STRATEGY

Abstract

Following the current outbreak of the novel pandemic COVID-19 or known as Coronavirus which started in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the virus has rapidly spreads to almost 120 countries around the world. COVID-19 outbreak is having a gigantic impact to the aviation players. The aviation and tourism industry worldwide are experiencing gloomy downturn of business. As reported by International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global revenue of airlines industry is estimated to reduce by around USD113 billion. For every 100 cases of COVID-19, it will lead to drop on passenger demand which cost universal airlines nearly USD113 billion. Apart from it, COVID-19 also hit shipping and air freight industry. The air freight business is dropped tremendously due to COVID-19 as a result from the cancellation of thousands of passenger flights from all countries across the globe, especially China. The cancellation of flights again results to lessening of belly capacity for cargo. With this background, this study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 to the aviation players. This exploratory study opts for abductive research approach. Published secondary data were used to get key information about COVID-19 and its impact to the global aviation players. The analysis of the key challenges and the outcome are based on content analysis performed in this study. This study specifically explores key impact of COVID-19 to the wide spectrum aviation players namely the airlines, airport authority, the air cargo provider, in-flight food caterer, aircraft or spare parts manufacturers, as well as the MROs (maintenance, repair and overhaul organization). This study is among the pioneer that investigate COVID-19 in the aviation sector. The findings from this study would lead to big areas of research for future scholars. This study also offers a toolkit reference to the aviation practitioners, as well as policy makers to further improve the policy or guideline relating to epidemic or pandemic issue in transportation industry. © 2020 SERSC.