AVIATION WORLD FEATURE

Dr. Rajee Olaganathan, faculty at the College of Aeronautics, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Worldwide, USA,and a Fellow Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society has researched the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the airline industry. It was published in the Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances in its April issue. The title of the paper is“Impact of COVID-19 on airline industry and strategic plan for its recovery with special reference to data analytics technology.”

The aviation industry is the pillar of the world’s social and economic development. This research paper highlights how the aviation industry was affected by the global pandemic, how the industry responded in the race against the virus worldwide and provides recommendations concerning going forward how the aviation industry and its stakeholders should be resilient to bring the industry back to normal. AVIATION WORLD is publishing the feature which highlights the significance of this research paper for readers’ interest.

Air travel is a lifeline of the world transportation sector. The current coronavirus outbreak is creating havoc on the day-to-day life of people around the world. The initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic around the world was slow and the airline industry operated as per its normal schedule till the majority of the countries prioritized public health over economic growth. This affected the aviation industry severely through increased flight cancellations, grounding of aircraft, travel bans, and closure of international borders. Both the aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues were negatively impacted. According to data from the International Civil Aviation Organization, passenger traffic decreased by 60 percent in 2020.

Dr. Rajee Olaganathan, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide who also consults actively on Avionics Sales and Services recently outlined her research findings. She mentions “Like other business sectors, the airline industry is also susceptible to external threats like natural disasters, economic recession, oil crisis, terrorism, and disease occurrences. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the value of the airline industry decreased to an unprecedented level in 2020 with a USD 371 billion loss of gross passenger operating revenues. The research findings of her paper can help the airline industry to recover from the impact of the pandemic, and might help to prepare it for the post-COVID-19 era.”

The data from Dr.Olaganathan’s research study showed that the Asia-Pacific region including India was severely impacted with a loss of 120 billion USD. The European and Asia/Pacific region together accounted for around 70% of the world’s international traffic in 2020. The impact of the pandemic is stronger on the international route than the domestic route. This study applied the PEST analysis to identify the factors that affect the global airline industry and suggested that the airline industry has to consider the political, economic, social, and technological aspects into consideration and keep airlines working to make their ecosystem as safe as possible.

To recover from the impact of the pandemic and to prepare for the post-COVID-19 era, Dr. Olaganathan recommends “to utilize data analysis to identify the opportunities by tracking the COVID-19 progress and recovery at a global and regional scale analysis, flight demand analysis by identifying the air route for reactivation, tracking the demand for global air travel and customer-specific air travel demand tracking through e-commerce.” This research report also suggested that the greater use of data and digital technologies must be an essential part of the airline industry’s recovery and resilience planning. It also recommended other proactive technology and strategic plans to address covid-19 issues. The results of this study will benefit the global airline industry.

Likewise, Dr. Olaganathan emphasizes that the industry needs a new perspective by adopting an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating business, management, and big data analytics technology for the recovery of the airline industry and its preparedness for the post-COVID-19 era. This needs strong coordination, cooperation, and effective communication between different data analytics teams (internal and external), between all the departments within airlines, and the stakeholders of the aviation industry.” This type of interdisciplinary research which has a practical application is essential for the recovery of the airline industry.

Reference
Olaganathan, R. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on airline industry and strategic plan for its recovery with special reference to data analytics technology. Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances, 07(01), 033–046. https://doi.org/10.30574 /gjeta.2021.7.1.0050