Airlines face worst crisis, only 25 flyers on 256-seater flight

MUMBAI: When was the last time a Friday afternoon online search for a flight next morning to London and return showed a total fare of just Rs 46,000? On Friday, Turkish Airlines offered exactly that with a 75 minute layover in Istanbul. Generally in March, Mumbai-London return fares on direct flights would cost over Rs 80,000 just 24 hours in advance.
On Friday, you could have also booked a Delhi to New York flight, fly out with a cabin bag and land in the US before Saturday midnight (local time) and return after Holi for as little as Rs 58,000. In March any other year, such a last-minute trip would cost over Rs 80,000.
In the “extraordinary circumstances” that international airlines find themselves in, under the cloud of Covid-19, even dirt cheap fares are finding only few takers. So, when a Singapore flight took off from Mumbai this week, the 256-seater plane had just 25 passengers. Similarly, a London-Mumbai flight landed in the city with only 60 passengers in economy class. The coronavirus outbreak has hit airline bottomlines like nothing has in the past two decades since 9/11, say industry insiders.
Besides East Asian destinations, flights to West Asia, such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have also been hit severely.