COVID-19 and Airline Performance in the Asia Pacific region

James Peoples,Nurulhuda Mohd Satar,Muhammad Asraf Abdullah

doi:10.35241/emeraldopenres.13914.1

James Peoples, Nurulhuda Mohd Satar + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.35241/emeraldopenres.13914.1

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Abstract

Health risks associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have severely affected the financial stability of airline companies globally. Recapturing financial stability following this crisis depends heavily on these companies’ ability to attain efficient and productive operations. This study uses several empirical approaches to examine key factors contributing to carriers sustaining high productivity prior to, during and after a major recession. Findings suggest, regardless of economic conditions, that social distancing which requires airline companies in the Asia Pacific region to fly with a significant percentage of unfilled seats weakens the performance of those companies. Furthermore, efficient operations do not guarantee the avoidance of productivity declines, especially during a recession.

Highlights

Following liberalization polices starting in the mid-1970s, the global airline industry has generally experienced significant increases in passenger demand
Historical data on the effect of disease outbreaks on aviation reveals that the longest recovery period was during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, following which it took approximately 9 months for revenue passenger kilometer to return to its pre-crises level (IATA, 2020c
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts that the impact of COVID-19 could surpass that caused by SARS, in part because COVID-19 has significantly affected the Chinese airline industry and this region accounts for a nontrivial share of the global airline industry4

Summary

12 Oct 2020 report report

1. Anming Zhang, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada Yahua Zhang, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia. Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. This article is included in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) collection

Introduction

IATA April 2020 Survey

Results