With two-cent airfares, high fuel costs and taxes, India’s aviation market already was one of the toughest around. The coronavirus pandemic could be the final straw for some of the country’s airlines.
Indian carriers need as much as $2.5 billion to keep flying, CAPA Centre for Aviation in Sydney says, and that may only last to the end of this year if they’re lucky. Airlines suffered a total collapse in demand from March 25 to late May as India banned commercial passenger flights as part of its virus lockdown.
Governments in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere have provided $123 billion to support airlines through the Covid-19 crisis. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, facing a widening fiscal deficit, hasn’t doled out funds to individual industries or airlines backed by private businesses and, in some cases, billionaires.
