The COVID-19 pandemic had a massive impact on the Indian aviation sector in 2020 and major airlines facing losses and challenging times laid off employees, sent them on leave without pay, or cut their salaries.The government also had to extend the deadline for submitting bids for Air India five times during the year.The effect of this disruption can be gauged by the loss figures of India's two largest airlines. IndiGo incurred net losses of ₹2,884 crore and ₹1,194 crore in Q1 and Q2 of this fiscal respectively. SpiceJet posted net losses of ₹600 crore and ₹112 crore in Q1 and Q2, respectively.The government, meanwhile, permitted special international passenger flights under Vande Bharat Mission since May and air bubble arrangements were formed with around 24 countries since July. However, scheduled international flights remain suspended in India.
"The revival of overseas travel is expected to be slower and more challenging than domestic. This will hurt Air India in particular as around 60 per cent of its revenue was earlier generated from international operations," said aviation consultancy firm CAPA in October.In 2019-20, approximately 205 million air passengers -- 140 million domestic and 65 million international -- travelled in India.CAPA India projected in October that the Indian aviation industry will lose a combined USD 6-6.5 billion in FY21, of which airlines will account for USD 4-4.5 billion. As a result, the government's plan to sell Air India has been hit.To survive the pandemic-induced crisis, all airlines took cost cutting measures like firings or pay cuts in 2020. In April, GoAir sent the majority of its employees on leave without pay. Air India had in April cut the salaries of its employees by 10 per cent.
At the same time, SpiceJet and IndiGo cut the salaries of all employees by 10-30 per cent and 5-25 per cent, respectively. In July, IndiGo also laid off 10 per cent of its workforce.Currently, the Indian airlines are operating domestic flights at around 80 per cent of their pre-COVID levels. The domestic services are expected to reach their pre-COVID levels by March 2021.
With the anti-coronavirus vaccination likely to begin from 2021, the Indian aviation sector is hoping for a much better year as compared to 2020
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