Malaysia, its largest market with 105 planes, is currently under lockdown.
AirAsia Malaysia expects demand could start to rebound from August, allowing it to restore service to all 17 of the domestic airports it serves by October, Chief Operating Officer Javed Anwar Malik said at a CAPA Centre for Aviation event on Wednesday. A full return to pre-COVID demand levels across Asia is not expected until around the third quarter of 2022, he said.
AirAsia Group last month reported its seventh consecutive quarterly loss and said it was continuing efforts to secure more liquidity. Passengers carried in the quarter ended March 31 totalled 976,968, a 90% drop from a year ago.
IndiGo is hoping to reach pre-Covid level of total traffic, including domestic and international, by the second quarter of next year, said its CEO Ronojoy Dutta on Wednesday. The carrier is currently operating around 40 per cent and 30 per cent of its pre-Covid domestic and international flights, respectively, and it does not plan to lay off any employees this year, Dutta told PTI in an interview. In July last year, India a largest carrier had laid off 10 per cent of its workforce due to the coronavirus-induced economic crisis.
IndiGo was operating 80 per cent of its pre-Covid domestic flights in February, before the second wave of the pandemic hit the country.
Read more about Indian airlines may post $4.1 billion consolidated loss this fiscal: CAPA on Business Standard. Airlines are estimated to need closer to $5 billion of recapitalisation in 2021-22 just to survive, including requirements generated through the course of 2020-21, it said.
Read more about Domestic air passenger traffic nosedives to 1.92 million in May: Report on Business Standard. Domestic air traffic nosedived to 19.20 lakh passengers in May from around 57.3 lakh in April, registering a sharp 65-67 per cent month-on-month contraction on account of the second wave of the pandemic, a report said on Thursday.With such a sharp
No-frills carrier AirAsia India has extended free cancellation and rescheduling facility for its flights to and from Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra following the extension of lockdown or strict restrictions by these states, a release said on Monday. While the governments of Karnataka, Delhi and Tamil Nadu have extended the lockdown to June 7, West Bengal has extended it till June 15. Maharashtra, which was the first state in the country to impose lockdown-type restriction on April 22 amid the second wave, has also extended these curbs to June 15. All AirAsia India guests who booked their flights before the announcement of the lockdown (in these states) can opt to cancel or change to another flight without incurring any change fees or cancellation charges, the airline said in a statement.