The Pandemic & Airline Operations

 

“Operations is the Heart of the Aviation Industry”.

Airport Operations:

Basically, deals with the operations and management of the large infrastructure of Airports and the primary duty of the team is to ensure Safety and Security of the Passengers and Goods. It is also an important task to ensure that the passengers board the correct aircraft and also their corresponding luggage is loaded onto the correct aircraft. In addition to passengers, the Airport Operations also include the management of goods & freight that has to be transported from one location to destination.

Some other critical functions that the team performs include, maintenance of the runway, the air strips, the terminals, hangers, etc.

The proper capacity management of the airport in relation with the footfall of passengers in the terminals is also an important function of the Airport Operations Team. In the technical terms, the team is referred to as DISPATCHERS.

 

Airline Operations:

Just like any other industry, Airline Industry also has fixed costs and variable costs, but for the Aviators, these costs are rather high and the company should have really deep pockets to venture into this industry. The cost of fixed assets like the aircraft, the variable cost of aviation fuel, form the major component of costs for an airline company. Typically, it takes an airline company around 3 to 5 years to break even and to reduce the fixed costs on assets, these companies lease the aircrafts rather than buying them and pay the parent company over a period of years.

On the other hand, it is the duty of dispatchers, to plan the flight for a specific route. A Flight Plan is prepared for this purpose. The Flight Plan is a printed document containing all the information about the flight, like the source and the destination, the type of aircraft being used, number of passengers on board, the fuel required to reach the destination and plan for refueling on the way (if required) and the number of halts that an aircraft will have.

This Flight Plan is shared with the ATC of the source, destination and all the intermediate stops that will come en-route the destination. In addition, as a safety precaution, this flight plan is also shared with Indian Air Force (IAF) Officials, because, the body is free to intercept any malicious aircraft in the Indian Air Space.

 

 

The Pandemic:

It is one of a kind situation that has occurred across the globe and Airliners are hard hit because of the pandemic. Aviation Industry along with being a transport industry acts as a Gateway for Hospitality Industry. Unless and until a person travels from one place to another, there will be no requirement of a hotel, a taxi, and the other players in the hospitality industry. Due to the Pandemic, the footfall of airports have seen a drastic decline over the past few months and the international travel is almost ZERO. On the other hand, the business travelers that used to use these services for business meetings and other similar business purposes, have declined owing to the time taken for the safety procedures, in the pre-COVID era, the norm was that a passenger has to reach the airport around 1 to 1.5 hours in ahead of the scheduled departure time, but to ensure safety of passengers, the lead time has increased to 2.5 hours and this is for both at the source and at the destination airport, not to forget the in-flight-time and the same story repeats for the return journey. Hence, effectively for a one-hour business meeting the personnel have to waste around 12 hours in travel, and hence they find doing it virtually on ZOOM, GoogleMeets, MS Teams, etc. much more convenient. Plus, there is a constant fear or actually coming in contact with the Virus.

Having the aircrafts grounded, is a bigger burden and incurs many more implicit costs than keeping the aircraft air borne. Hence during the lockdown of the pandemic, Airliners have come up with some of the following substitute businesses that can help the Cash flowing during these tough times:

1.      Using the existing aircrafts as cargo carriers: Most of the Airliners, have removed the seats from the aircrafts and have increased their cargo carrying capacity. Using the existing equipment for a similar use, they are ensuring that they can make whatever little amount that is possible.

2.      Chartering Services: Repatriation flights from overseas to home countries are being operated by many airliners, this serves two purposes, they can get the money required and also help them build a positive image.

Other things that the Airliners are doing during this Pandemic:

1.      Many airliners are also training their staffs to be prepared for the new normal and spring out well once the vaccine is out. Their professionals will be much more equipped and qualified once the aircrafts become air borne again.

2.      Airliners have also stopped or postponed the orders placed with the manufacturers, in order to save on some liquid cash.

How do the Low-Cost Carriers Operate?

The Low-Cost carriers actually incur the same cost for operating a flight on certain route as does a premium airliner, but the difference lies in the way the low-cost carriers manage their costs. A low-cost carrier will be having lot more stoppages and halts en-route the final destination from source, and they ensure that the cost/hour of flight operation always stays on the lower side.

However, they charge their customers for the each and every additional service that the airline is providing, hence they cut out on the variable costs and the costs incurred to the customers. Services like pre-booking a particular Window or Aisle seat, pre-ordering of food and beverages, pre-booking of additional baggage, are some of the services for which the low-cost airliners charge their passengers above the fixed ticket prices. This helps reduce the cost of operation for the airline as well as reduce the ticket prices for the customer who has to travel for short distances and doesn’t mind a middle seat or has limited baggage.