About 3 million jobs at risk due to Covid impact on Indian airline industry: IATA
MUMBAI: Even as the global airline industry battles to survive the COVID pandemic, airlines’ trade body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Friday forecast that the crisis would have a potential impact on 3 million jobs in India. The country might see the demand for air travel drop by half in 2020 as compared to 2019, which would bring about a $11 million drop in revenue this year as compared to the last.
“The situation is deteriorating. Airlines are in survival mode. They face a liquidity crisis with a $61 billion cash burn in the second quarter. We have seen the first airline casualty in the region. There will be more casualties if governments do not step in urgently to ensure airlines have sufficient cash flow to tide them over this period,” said Conrad Clifford, IATA’s regional vice president, Asia-Pacific. He identified India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand as priority countries that need to take action.
