When do we fly again? Managing Airlines in a Pandemic: Challenges and Recommendations

Abstract

This paper aimed to identify the challenges and propose recommendations to manage sustainability of the airline industry in a pandemic.  When the World Health Organization stated Covid-19 as pandemic on March 11, 2020, governments in all countries ordered lockdowns, imposed travel restrictions, and required quarantine of 14 days for visitors and citizens upon arrival at the airport.   The airlines industry came to a standstill.  As Covid-19 is a recent and evolving phenomenon, the methodology employs secondary research based on data from authoritative sources such as the World Health Organization, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) to identify the challenges.  Peer reviewed research on past pandemics, especially the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 help formulate recommendations to manage sustainability.   The challenges are financial crisis, travel restrictions and customer distrust.  The recommendations are positioning customer safety first, customer engagement, pricing strategy and collaboration with government.  Limitations of the research and future research suggestions are presented