Staff Reporter
Islamabad/Paris
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has suffered a loss of over Rs10.5 billion in two months due to suspension of flight operation in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Aviation Division, the CAA suffered a loss of Rs67.5 million per day in the ongoing month due to the suspension of flight operations across the world amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Senior Joint Secretary Aviation Division Abdul Sattar Khokhar told media that the suspension of international flights is causing a loss of Rs2.5 billion per week to CAA.
“Over 1000 flights used to pass through Pakistani air space daily. The figure has now reduced to 22percent due to worldwide suspension of international flights amid the coronavirus lockdown.” CAA had suffered a loss of Rs59 million during the first 15 days of March, he added.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had suffered a loss of Rs3.6 billion in the month of March owing to the suspension of flights to different counters amid coronavirus outbreak.
As many as 1681 international and domestic flights had been canceled during the month of March.
Around 212 flights were cancelled in the first 15 days of the past month, according to documentation released by CAA. The aviation authority had suffered a loss of Rs2723 million due to the flights’ suspension, landing and other charges.
The CAA on Saturday announced an extension in International flight operation suspension.
The press release reads: “As per the decision of the Government of Pakistan, the suspension of International flight operations as effected earlier has been extended upto Friday, May 15, 2020 at 2359 hours PST.”
Meanwhile, world air traffic suffered a massive drop of more than half in March compared with the same period last year thanks to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, the airline industry’s trade body said Wednesday.
The 52.9 percent drop when measured by total revenue per passenger kilometres “was the largest decline in recent history, reflecting the impact of government actions to slow the spread of COVID-19”, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Many of the roughly 290 airlines who are members of the Association have been hard hit by the slump in air travel demand with much of the world in lockdown as governments fight to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Those airlines together represent 82 percent of global air traffic.
US aerospace giant Boeing and British Airways Boeing have notably announced this week they expect to make thousands of job cuts after traffic volume fell to levels not seen since 2006.
“March was a disastrous month for aviation,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO.
“Airlines progressively felt the growing impact of the COVID-19 related border closings and restrictions on mobility, including in domestic markets.
“Demand was at the same level it was in 2006 but we have the fleets and employees for double that.
“Worse, we know that the situation deteriorated even more in April and most signs point to a slow recovery.”
