Imagine travelling to your holiday destination on a plane that is only half filled with passengers, served by cabin crew wearing masks.
That could be the “new normal” for airlines which are likely to continue with safe distancing measures even after the COVID-19 outbreak dies down, said aviation analysts.
Already, budget carrier Jetstar Asia, which resumed partial operations last Tuesday (Apr 21), said no more than 112 seats will be available on each passenger flight. That’s about 60 per cent of capacity, as part of efforts to ensure safe distancing on board.
Passengers and crew members will be required to wear masks.
Onboard services such as meals will also be cut back, with only water served on flights.
Several other airlines, such as Air New Zealand, KLM and United Airlines, are also taking steps to ensure safe distancing, for example, by blocking off certain seats from being purchased.
“It's all very early days as airlines try to figure out the new norm,” said independent aviation analyst Brendan Sobie, noting that blocking seats is a common measure at the moment.
However, seat blocking has had little direct impact on airline revenue right now, as most flights are operating at “well below 50 per cent” of passenger capacity anyway, Mr Sobie pointed out. Cargo is currently the main revenue source for airlines, he added.
END OF CHEAP TRAVEL?
According to International Air Transport Association (IATA) director-general Alexandre de Juniac, the enforcement of safe distancing on aircraft would require at least one-third of plane seats to remain empty.
Airlines would have to raise ticket prices by at least 50 per cent in order to turn a minimum profit, he suggested at a briefing on Apr 21.
“It means two things - either you fly at the same price, selling the ticket at the same average price as before and then you lose an enormous amount of money, so it’s impossible to fly for any airline. Or you increase the ticket price for a similar product by at least 50 per cent and then you are able to fly with a minimum profit,” he said.
“And so it means that if social distancing is imposed, cheap travel is over.”
“Will 180 people feel comfortable being together for two to three hours in an aircraft?” he said.
“Until and unless a vaccine is found - and that's at least a year away - low-cost airlines will struggle to fill the planes and therefore, won't make money flying passengers that can't allow carriers to break even,” he added.
“If they don't make money, they can't sustain the business.”