Coronavirus wipes out overseas ops of Indian carriers; CAPA predicts industry doomsday
MUMBAI: Vistara on Wednesday followed GoAir in grounding all its international operations, while IndiGo and Air India suspended 65%-70% of their overseas flights and grounded several planes, industry sources said, as the Covid-19 outbreak has created a serious crisis for the airline businesses across the world.
Meanwhile, aviation consultant CAPA-Centre for Aviation has predicted a significant impact on the local airline industry, including initial grounding of 150 planes, retrenchments and an April-June combined loss of up to $600 million for carriers excluding Air India. It had last week said many airlines in the world would go bankrupt if government assistance wasn’t forthcoming. The India report said without getting meaningful government support, some local airlines could run out of cash and shut operations by May or June.
