‘3rd wave has airlines flying into deep-red with Rs 20,000-crore net losses this year’

Hit by the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and soaring fuel prices, airlines are flying towards record losses with a likely loss of a whopping Rs Indian aviation industry,Indian aviation industry, crore for the full fiscal year, warns a report.

The airlines are flying towards their steepest-ever net loss of over Rs 20,000 crore this fiscal, which will be 44 per cent more than Rs 13,853 crore they bled last fiscal, CRISIL said in a report.

This will push back the industry’s recovery beyond fiscal 2023, the report based on three large listed airlines–Indigo, Spicejet, and Air India–which together command 75 per cent of the domestic traffic, warned.

Air traffic had seen a swift recovery after the second wave and reached 86 per cent of the pre-pandemic level in December 2021 compared over December 2019, while regular international flights were expected to start after January 2022.

However, the third wave has already caused domestic air traffic to plummet 25 per cent in the first week of January.