A pandemic is an outbreak and prevalence of a disease over a whole nation or the world. An example of a pandemic is the outbreak of COVID-19 disease, which has caused unprecedented challenges to various sectors, including the airline industry. The challenges attributed to an outbreak of a pandemic cannot be evaded, but their effects can be significantly reduced by employing strategic measures of recovering. One of the most extraordinary and prevalent challenges that the airline industry faces due to the outbreak of COVID-19 is the significant drop in the number and demand of passengers seeking and using air transport because of the COVID-19 pandemic containment measures (Agrawal, 2020). Therefore, the airlines have recorded and reported dramatic losses due to the low turnout of passengers. There are various measures that airlines can employ to ensure complete or remarkable recovery from the pandemic. Effective, efficient, reliable, and strategic efforts will ensure that the flights recover from the challenges faced in the long run and the short run.
One of the most significant measures that the airlines industry should employ includes outsourcing skilled and qualified employees to support the operations. Professional employees will be more efficient and effective, and thus they will be more productive. In addition, the skilled and experienced employees will ensure they apply their experience to develop improved, innovative, and creative measures to help the airlines recover (Maneenop and Kotcharin, 2020). Airline skilled employees will also be instrumental in ensuring that they use their skills to perform the assigned duties on a timely basis and with efficiency and effectiveness. The qualified personnel offer expert services to deliver outstanding services; therefore, the customers will be left satisfied, and businesses will save and increase their earnings (Albers and Rundshagen, 2020). Proficient and trained employees will be instrumental in creating positive work relationships in the airline agencies. Therefore, they will carry on their assigned duties according to the airline industry’s set goals and objectives. Qualified employees will also work harmoniously with their colleagues and help the airline industry recover from the challenges experienced during the pandemic.
Airlines should make insight a shared responsibility. Airline agencies should increase shared responsibility or collaboration between various sectors involved in the airline industry. Such sectors include security agencies and the ministry of foreign affairs. The shared responsibility based on transparency is the most crucial aspect in the industry, which will help the industry recover from the COVID-19 effects (Albers and Rundshagen, 2020). The timely sharing of information between the involved agencies and the data transfer with transparency will ensure that all the sectors can effectively and efficiently align their service levels appropriately. When the agencies involved in the travelling sector work together, they can recover from pandemic effects and improve productivity and efficiency.
The airline industry should ensure they do not skimp on staff or maintenance. The recovery process should ensure that the airline sector does not expend or use a relatively low amount of time or money resources on something crucial while economizing. The airline industry needs to ensure that all the aircraft are in good conditions from effective and adequate maintenance (Oum, 2021). Workforce support and welfare should always be the airline industry’s top considerations. When the aircraft travels returns as a result of review and withdrawal of COVID-19 containment measures, the airplanes and employees should be ready to resume offering exemplary services to the airline travellers (Abate, Christidis, and Purwanto, 2020). Airline workers who had been granted leave due to the pandemic need to be called back and, where necessary, trained on new measures to be adopted. Additional training of the employees also ensures increased productivity. Inventories and directories need to be established to ensure the airlines operate efficiently.
The process of airlines recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic heavily depends on the ability of airlines to identify and be considerate of cost structures. The airline industry will employ a cost structure to set prices and identify sectors where expenses can be reduced. Cost drivers are particular kinds of costs, fixed or variable which are instrumental in determining and making up overall industry expenses (Czerny et al., 2020). The airline industries should be disciplined about their cost structures and adjust their measures and strategies to have a cost-friendly plan. Various travellers who use the airlines as their primary or secondary mode of transport can therefore be considered while pricing.
Employees’ and customers’ hygiene should be prioritized and improved to ensure customers are motivated to travel using aircraft. Customer hygiene is essential and includes ensuring passengers wear masks, adequate bins, and carefully clean the plane. Employee hygiene is equally important as customers’ hygiene. Workers should be provided with personal protective equipment to help them observe their hygiene (Dube, Nhamo, and Chikodzi, 2021). When the safety and hygiene of workers are observed, workers can effectively serve the clients and therefore help the airline industry recover from adverse pandemic effects. Finally, the customer service should be top-notch, where flexibility should be guaranteed regarding postponing or cancelling flights due to a pandemic. Airlines should aim to work with flyers to accommodate their needs and therefore solve the customers’ problem effectively and thus attract more customers who will steer them to recovery.
The airline industry is the most affected by the COVD-19 pandemic; however, it is recovering. There are various recommendations that are most influential in the sector’s recovery. Such include collaborating the aviation industry with other sectors such as security and health department to improve customer experience. In addition, it is recommendable for airlines to employ skilled personnel who will use their qualification and skill capabilities to help the industry recover from pandemics (Dube, Nhamo, and Chikodzi, 2021). Finally, the airlines should improve hygiene, actively manage safety and security, and reduce travellers’ chances of contracting healthy-related infections. Airlines should ensure global and regional harmonization of meaningful and effective measures to strengthen public or private passenger confidence levels and rates while travelling via aircraft. All the above criteria will be instrumental in ensuring airlines recover from pandemics effects that they were experiencing.
References
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Czerny, A., Fu, X., Lei, Z. and Qum, T.H. (2020). Post-Pandemic Aviation Market Recovery: Focus on Changes in China. [online] ses.library.usyd.edu.au. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2123/23926 [Accessed 2 Mar. 2022].
Dube, K., Nhamo, G. and Chikodzi, D. (2021). COVID-19 pandemic and prospects for recovery of the global aviation industry. Journal of Air Transport Management, 92(92), p.102022.
Maneenop, S. and Kotcharin, S. (2020). The impacts of COVID-19 on the global airline industry: An event study approach. Journal of Air Transport Management, [online] 89(54756865), p.101920. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699720305032.
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