That’s it. Once again, you’ve read another article from yet another news source about Coronavirus. You’ve probably kept up with the latest stats, whether on the number of people affected, or the number of people who have passed from it.
The coronavirus is affecting each industry, in its own little way. Some industries are thriving, others are collapsing, so how is the aviation industry fairing?
The coronavirus is hitting each industry in different ways.
For some industries, the virus has caused a complete collapse in the market, as people do not want anything associated with the coronavirus, this is hitting Chinese businesses like Alibaba the most.
For other industries, such as health and disaster prepping industries, stocks and profitability have never been higher!
For the aviation industry however, the coronavirus is reeking both mayhem and increased profitability. It just depends on which side of the coin you are.
Some airlines, especially those with longer range capabilities, who fly in Asia, their aircraft have been indispensable.
But for other airlines, multinational airlines, who merely serve the industry, their aircraft are sat wasting more money than the airlines could reasonably want to!
Airliners being used as transport
It’s no secret that thousands of foreign nationals have been infected with the coronavirus.
Obviously, these people need to get home somehow, but they can’t do it via a regular commercial flight, on a 747 or A380.
However, they cannot simply go home to their families, no, that will merely spread the coronavirus even further.
So, airlines in Asia, with a strong long-distance capabilities, have been contracted by the WHO (World Health Organization) to help bring these foreign nationals home.
Whilst these flights will operate very similarly to a regular commercial flight, but there is one key element missing: hospitality.
Whilst yes, there are standard cabin crews and regular commercial pilots, they have one main objective: get everyone home, safe and sound.
These crews will have minimal interactions with the passengers on board, before heading to quarantine.
Flights cancelled
No one likes their flight being cancelled. But in this case, I think most people can agree that this is the best course of action.
Most major American airlines have suspended all flights from the US to China, with many other major airlines also following suit!
Thanks to this, over 50,000 flights to mainland China. Many airlines too, have suspended flights to nearby countries, where the coronavirus has taken hold, such as Thailand, Nepal, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Those airlines that haven’t cancelled all flights to infected countries, have taken steps to reduce the number of flights to those countries.
This simulates demand being high, and thus, ticket prices are high and are thus not purchased by people.
For those airlines who have cancelled their flights, there is currently no end date for when flights will resume.
However, people are hopeful that it will be at the end of April, beginning of May time, in preparation for the next financial year.
Stock drop
Personally, I can’t explain this in too much detail, but Thibault Kuten of Finance Friday can:
We are seeing airlines’ stock falling almost all the way across the board. Most major airlines, who have any form of contact with China, have seen their stock prices plummet! American Airlines is a great example of this.
When the first round of news headlines came to light that the coronavirus was a serious and credible risk, their stock price collapsed by 9.3%!
But American Airlines are not the only airline that this has happened to.
Delta Air Line’s stock collapsed by 7%, International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) collapsed by 3.9% and Lufthansa’s stock price collapsed by 4.5%!
But that’s not even the worst of it! China Air’s stock collapsed by over 11%! China, nor the aviation industry as a whole has seen such a collapse of stock, since the days following September eleventh 2001.
This has struck most major airlines in the aviation industry. Even smaller parts of the aviation industry have been affected, especially those in the Air charter business, or private jet business.
Air charter businesses have seen a serious reduction in price due to fear of the virus.
People not flying
Nobody wants to catch a potentially fatal disease. People tend to run in the exact opposite direction of the disease. So, that’s what’s happened to the aviation industry.
People have simply refused to board aircraft. However, there’s a strange twist. It’s not that they’re refusing to board aircraft to China, but they’re refusing to fly to places that haven’t got cases of the coronavirus.
Which is rather odd when you think of it. They’re refusing to fly to a place that is genuinely safe, often preferring to stay in a country with several cases already reported! Absolutely crazy!
Flight shaming
Flight shaming is not just something that Greta Thunberg does. Millions of people around the world have taken to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to flight shame people.
Not because they are flying, but because of where they are flying to or from- China, or more specifically, Wuhan (where the virus originates).
This has seen hundreds of thousands of regular citizens criticized, both directly and indirectly, by the media and by the general public.
This is due to the fact that the general public believes they are deliberately trying to infect themselves.
Some of these people, cannot avoid flying to Wuhan. For some, it’s their home, where their wives and children are. For others, they can avoid flying to Wuhan.
Some, are medical researchers, or doctors who are trying to contain the outbreak, others are regular Joe’s, who have no reason to go to Wuhan.
For those out for the thrills, and with no real purpose of going to Wuhan, they are being relentlessly shamed and…
Quarantine
As mentioned earlier, there are (or rather were) foreign nationals inside Wuhan when the outbreak began.
When they were brought back, they were put into quarantine centers, often ran by their nation’s Air Force. It’s often that it is here, where both the aircraft and the passengers are checked over.
The aircraft are checked, not only by doctors, but by aviation engineers and interior designers, to see if the aircraft itself has been attacked by the virus (yes, that is possible! I didn’t even know that it was possible until a few days ago!)
It’s also here, where the passengers are kept, to see if they are developing symptoms of the coronavirus. It is here where certain parts of the aviation industry are shining or will shine.
Naturally, no one will want to fly on a “plague plane” as the media would probably call them. So, the aviation industry will have to produce something that can overcome that.
This part of the aviation industry is called the aircraft internal design division.
These people will essentially go onto those airliners, strip them away to the bare essentials, and build her up again.
This will lead to those parts of the aviation industry who specialize in this area, to potentially gain multimillion dollar clients, who ask them to redesign potentially hundreds of these aircraft!
How else does the coronavirus affect the aviation industry? Will there be more consequences of the coronavirus on the aviation industry? Why or why not? Tell me in the comments!