The Good Years

Advanced planes

The rapid growth in the aviation sector over the past 25 years has taken air travel to a higher level with greater connectivity across the world. With advanced technology fueling the aviation industry, the two largest airplane manufacturers in the world, Boeing and Airbus, have been able to churn out highly efficient new generation passenger planes by re-designing the jet-engines which produces less CO2, amplifying the aerodynamics of the plane to reduce drag and using durable lightweight materials amounting to lesser fuel required. With advanced flight control systems coupled with high aviation safety features, air travel has also become a safe and convenient way to connect destinations. Planes of today have become a more efficient flying machine.

Aviation Risk Management System

Recurrent training, a refresher course for pilots and crews to sharpen their skills and emergency preparedness, have made a positive impact on the overall safety management system. Perhaps the ability to identify and rectify issues before it becomes a major problem have made the aviation risk management system a vital component in any aviation industry.

Low Budget airlines

The introduction of low-fare or budget airlines have broken the monopoly of the traditional full-service airlines. Airfares have become affordable for the man in the street. AirAsia, a Malaysian Based budget airline has the tagline ‘Now everyone can fly’ which has become well-known in the Asian region, a successful branding strategy that is remembered by everyone. Many budget airlines have also collaborated with full service and flag carrier airlines, developing a partnership and complimenting each other. One such example is Scoot (Budget airline) and Singapore airlines (Singapore’s flag carrier), a win-win strategy for both airlines (Scoot is a subsidiary of Singapore airlines). The expansion of the middle-class category has also contributed to the increase in air travel as more of the population is able to afford flights for either business or pleasure. With more destinations added into the global air network, air-travel has become conveniently easy to reach far-fetched cities. As a result, International passengers have been consistently increasing by about 5% per annum, a profitable growth in the aviation industry.

All these developments and improvements have transformed air-travel to be highly economical, fuel efficient and most importantly safe, giving any passenger the assurance of reaching his/her destination safely in comfort and on time.

2020: a bad year

Greatest Crisis

The Corona-virus pandemic has crippled many industries and one of the first and the most badly affected industry is aviation. Recently one of the biggest airline companies in the world, American Airlines, has just announced it will cut a whopping 19,000 jobs in October 2020, about 30% of its workforce. This is coming after about 12,500 employees left the airline voluntarily in March of this year. The German flag carrier, Lufthansa may cut as many as 22,000 jobs very soon. Another US giant airliner, United, said as many as 36,000 jobs are at stake and a recent internal memo revealed that they need to furlough nearly 2,000 pilots in October 2020.

Airports around the world have not been spared either. The world’s busiest airport for international passengers, Dubai International airport has been one such casualty with thousands of flights cancelled, disrupting travel plans of millions. Though some air-travel has picked up, there’s still a long way for a full recovery. The renown Changi International airport in Singapore, has announced months ago that Terminal 2 and 4 will suspend operations for the time being to optimize resources.

Even companies indirectly supporting the aviation industry have implemented cost cutting measures. The British multinational engineering giant Rolls-Royce recently reported huge record losses which has resulted in restructuring of manpower and factories globally.

These are only a few out of a global long list of aviation companies severely hit economically due to the impact of the corona-virus pandemic. It has not spared anyone from either salary reduction, having to take no pay leave or being made redundant. Reports have said that the overall global loses could amount to more than USD$84 Billion for this year alone. Guillaume Faury, Airbus’s chief executive, mentioned that the pandemic is the gravest crisis the industry has ever known. Many aviation experts and economists have calculated that the road to full recovery for the industry could take between 3 to 5 years. The aviation industry has indeed caught a very bad virus and its urgently in need of a vaccination.

What’s Next

Before the pandemic, the aviation sector was seeing rapid expansion that was leading to air traffic congestion in many parts of the world, expansion delays and having a high impact on the environment. Now ironically it is the best time to steadily build the infrastructure, designing better air traffic control systems as well as reviewing the framework for controlling CO2 emissions. The government bodies and the Aviation sector should work together during these challenging times to ensure continuity and that funds can be tapped to fuel the projects. Affected employees could be re-channeled to other industries temporarily to soften the impact. One such example is how in Singapore, the governmental agencies worked with unions and private organizations to redeploy affected aviation employees to take up alternative roles such as care ambassadors in hospitals, transport ambassadors at public transport hubs to educate the public about safe distancing and other measures. It is also the best time for training or taking up courses to keep abreast with the changing trends and to get prepared when normal operations resume.

Road to recovery

As mentioned before, it may take up to 5 years to normalized operations. Airline companies will have to review and assess their weaknesses and strengths. Governmental agencies will have to intervene to ensure there’s financial back-up for the industry to keep afloat. Airliners have to evolve and practice preventive safe measures which has to be practical and effective. It will be challenging but slowly and surely the optimism will grow. The badly-hit industry will get the courage to fight the pandemic and this will become the new normal. Right now, let us all enjoy the pollution free blue skies…