International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.

3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023

E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

Assessing the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the

Aviation Sector and Exploring Strategies for Industry
Recovery
Roba Hasaneya1, Khadija Mohammed2, Swathi Shankar3, Ignatius Fernando4,
Chaitanya Sonambekar5, Nikita Garg6
Kuwait University1, 2
Mumbai University3, 4, 5
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University6
Correspondence Email: Roba.Hasaneya@cba.ku.edu.kw

ARTICLE INFORMATION

Publication information ABSTRACT

Research article One of the most impacted industries

among all, is the Airlines industry. Airlines
HOW TO CITE need to study the consequences of a
pandemic, what is important is that they
Hasaneya, R., Mohammed, K., Shankar, adapt to the uncertainty and complex
S., Fernando, I., Sonambekar, C., Garg, N. changes. Companies must understand
(2023). Assessing the Effects of the how to manage their capabilities, strategy,
COVID-19 Pandemic on the Aviation mission, and vision, with a fast and
Sector and Exploring Strategies for changing environment. Each airline can
Industry Recovery. International Journal of get the benefit of having a low-cost
Tourism and Hospitality in Asia Pacific, strategy and use the cargo shipment
6(3), 18-28. strategy that makes it easy to ship different
products. Basically, reaching efficiency
DOI: and effectiveness to lead the uncertain
https://doi.org/10.32535/ijthap.v6i3. changes. For the research report it
2168 considers the highly affected industry in
covid era. Qatar airways operated in a high
Copyright @ 2023 owned by Author(s). premium business model but in covid
Published by IJTHAP times, demand of the luxury segment got
affected. Indigo does their business mainly
in India, so they are the worst hit in these
times since India shows the second
highest number of covid cases in the
world. Due to the resurgence of Covid-19,
This is an open-access article. Cathay Pacific have struggled with staff
License: Attribution-Noncommercial- rostering due to Hong Kong’s strict
Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA) quarantine rules.

Received: 19 August 2023 Keywords: Alliances, Airline Industry,

Accepted: 20 September 2023 Contingency, Impact of Covid-19, Safety
Published: 20 October 2023 Measures, Strategy of Airlines

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

INTRODUCTION

Airlines are known as a globalized industry. The airlines industry opens the economic
growth, global trade, tourism, and investments (Tahanisaz & Shokuhyar, 2020).
Understanding the airline industry's role in creating a worldwide network is important.
The airline industry initiates economic growth and eases international trade and tourism
as well. Entering an airline industry isn’t easy, barriers of entry to the airline industry
include high startup costs, like the cost of the airplanes, the competition in the industry,
and the required economies of scale the company must reach in order to be effective,
productive with less costs. Several airlines have divided up price categories based on
service offers such as full service and low cost, which means price differentiates the
service (Sulistya & Ginaya, 2020).

Stakeholders and partners must know how to work together to reach the benefits of the
air transport, and the most important thing is to sustain the growth of aviation by having
alliances to connect more people and break the traditional competition and make it
better. Airlines form and participate in international alliances getting various benefit (Seo,
2020). Alliances in aviation industry operates a basic strategy to stimulate competition
and it has increased over time (Cobeña, Gallego, & Casanueva, 2019). Partnering and
making alliances can benefit consumers and so for the airline company itself as well as
linking countries and cities together. Just like the Oneworld alliance that includes Qatar
airways, Cathay Pacific, and they will soon add Indigo to the alliance. Such an alliance
that connects partners to provide the best benefit for any airline member, the ease and
smooth check in, and easy search for the suitable airline company to travel with, opening
more destinations, and creating a Global network.

Regarding the effect of covid-19: the Oneworld alliance is known for its dedication to the
safety measures for their members and the airport hubs during this time. Acknowledging
the disruption of the pandemic could affect the aviation sector much more than the
emergency (Abate, Christidis, & Purwanto, 2020). Covid-19 pandemic has triggered the
crisis for air transportation industry and in response to Covid-19, all worldwide
destinations have enforced travel restrictions, bans, or quarantine measure (Suk & Kim,
2021). The ongoing pandemic crisis has created fertile and hostile environment for
companies and industries to transform their value chain and innovate (Amankwah-
Amoah, 2021). The pandemic of Covid-19 that resulted in a great fall of the massive
aviation industry is something expected, since the global rapid spread of Covid-19
increases restrictions and the demand of the air travel is challenging, no wonder the
costs of the industry is strongly affected with great losses and the barriers to exit from
the industry will create more losses if the airline companies didn’t figure it out in leading
the crisis and survive. Changing the structure and strategies of each airline organization
is required, as what is required is the role of management and understanding the market.
And corporations instead of competing can also help in the survival. Understanding the
mission, vision, and strategy, understating the structural and contextual dimensions of
the organizations is important as well.

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

There has never been before such a significant and prolonged decrease in air passenger
demand in the airline business. Hollinger (2020) stated that the travel and hospitality
industries are in dire straits where 60% of the world’s commercial aircraft have been
grounded (Albers & Rundshagen, 2020). Previous crises, such as SARS in 2003 or the
9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, were geographically or temporally limited. As a result,
predicting when airlines will be able to resume operations and when flight operations and
consumer demand will recover to pre-COVID-19 levels becomes extremely difficult.
Current forecasts place the recovery of global traffic to 2019 levels between 2023 and
2025. The massive drop in demand, along with the anticipated multi-year recovery
phase, is posing numerous issues for the aviation sector, the first of which is surviving
and generating money when there is practically no demand. While the current focus is
on survival, how airlines handle the recovery period is equally important.

Qatar Airways' vision statement is “to become a world-class carrier and cargo service
provider with global reach”. It is a national airline of Qatar and become one of the best
airlines in the world (Wang, 2021). To uphold the phrase, the organization focuses on
three factors: product quality, product reliability, and world-class network reach, with 122
aircrafts increasingly covering across six continents and 120 destinations. Its purpose
statement is to “Deliver Excellence in Everything We Do”. Qatar Airways has
subsequently become one of the world's fastest growing airlines, with extraordinary
growth averaging double-digit increases year on year. The airline has grown under the
innovative leadership of Chief Executive Officer His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, who
was appointed CEO in 1996 and has been key in transforming Qatar Airways into an
award-winning and excellent carrier.

IndiGo airlines have the mission to provide quality and reliable air travel facilities to the
young, price conscious & first-time travelers. Adding to its mission to be the best in the
industry the airlines have a long-term vision as well. IndiGo Airlines also has a well-
defined Vision Statement that addresses all the basic components of a good vision
statement. They know that their customers are the “Middle Class Consumers”, they know
that they “Want to become India’s largest airline”, they meet the demands through their
well-defined 3 Pillars of: “Affordable Prices, On Time Performance and Hassle-free
Travel Experience”.

Over the past decade, IndiGo Airlines has had a holistic approach and circumvented
success. With a proper mix of Marketing, Pricing, Functional and Corporate Level
strategies, it has successfully established itself as one of India’s leading LCC. Some of
the strategies that IndiGo has deployed have been explained from a theoretical basis
and purely subjective. Cathay Pacific's vision is to make the most admired airline in the
world. Ensuring safety comes first. Providing service straight from the heart. Encouraging
product leadership. Delivering superior financial returns. Providing rewarding career
opportunities. The main mission of Cathay Pacific is to increase their profit margins. In
their concern for survival, Cathay Pacific states that their main criteria is developing
superior financial returns. Their concern for employees is ‘providing rewarding career
opportunities. It takes a market-oriented approach and adopts a business strategy based
on the needs and wants of customers. The market-oriented approach is in direct contrast
to the production orientation, where a firm’s activities are geared towards existing
technologies, products, and production processes.

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

LITERATURE REVIEW

The coronavirus outbreak has led to a huge impact on many organizations and industry
all over the world (Liew, Liew, Lim, Lim, & Qonitah, 2022). The Covid-19 pandemic has
affected the airlines industry severely and halted global aviation for months, long-haul
carrier Qatar Airways in September 2020 reported revenue losses of almost $2bn,
blaming the coronavirus pandemic. The uncertainty of the pandemic outbreak, travel
restriction, and broader controls had led to a lower air travel demand from the society
(Nair et al., 2021). WHO also declared that tourism is the most affected sector by the
pandemic Covid-19 (Espinoza et al., 2021). Partial reason for their losses was also
because of the new rules of accounting which further added to their losses as per Qatar
Airways. The demand for flights has been lower over the fears of the virus, which
wreaked and created havoc on the international businesses of the aviation industry.
During that year, Qatar Airways slashed almost 50,000 employees. The management is
very confident of emerging back stronger from this difficult period and continuing to
innovate.

Qatar Airways which come under the network airlines is expected to bounce back to its
pre-covid levels by the end of Financial Year 2022. Acknowledging that aviation sector
has positive economic spin-offs on other facets of economy (Dube, 2023). Amid the
pandemic Qatar Airways has toppled Air New Zealand to become the world’s best carrier
at a time when the aviation industry is badly hit by the pandemic, according to an aviation
safety and product rating agency, AirlineRatings.com. It appraised Qatar Airways for its
dedication and commitment to continue to operate. It was the first carrier to complete
IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and the first to be fully audited and compliant for
Covid-19 by both AirlineRatings and Skytrax. The group chief executive of Qatar
Airways said in a statement that they have witnessed some of the darkest days ever
seen by the aviation industry, but the Doha-based airlines continued to operate. Since
the pandemic, Qatar Airways has flown over 2 million passengers and carried over
250,000 tons of medicine and aid to areas impacted by the coronavirus (Gaurav, 2021).

The chief executive of Qatar Airways says that the resilience is weak, and recovery will
take a long period of time. The airline industry warned of a need for more cooperation in
creating vaccine passports to see some positivity. Since there is a boost in the cargo,
the airline is flying roughly 70% of its normal schedule. On an average airline across the
globe were flying only 40% of their capacity. The airline carried 32.3 million passengers
in the last fiscal year, compared to 29.4 million the prior year.

Qatar Airways has officially inked an agreement with RwandAir, deepening their
partnership. The move will allow travelers on both carriers to access over 160
destinations across the networks from their hubs. Qatar Airways purchased a 49% stake
in early 2020 to grow its presence in Africa. Qatar Airways has strategic location which
maximize their ability to connect people from West and East within eight hours flight
(Fetais, Al-Kwifi, Ahmed, & Tran, 2020). This is in addition to these airline’s decision to
offer frequent flyer reciprocity, allowing passengers to earn and use their miles on any
airline. This latest partnership will help support the recovery of international air travel and
offer unrivalled connectivity with expectations of becoming a major player in Africa in
various destinations.

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

Airline Alliance group Oneworld has partnered with travel tech company Sherpa to
provide up-to-date information on its Covid-19 portal. It is an agreement between airlines
to share revenues on a route and to coordinate together on route planning and
scheduling. The portal was first launched in July 2020 as a customer resource for
information on health and wellbeing measures, which will assist the customers in
knowing what to expect prior to embarking on their travel. It has partnered with 14 airlines
along with Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific.

IndiGo’s CEO Ronojoy Dutta said “From where things stand currently, it is impossible for
our company to fly through this economic storm without making some sacrifices, in order
to sustain our business operations therefore, after carefully assessing and reviewing all
possible scenarios, it is clear that we will need to bid a painful adieu to 10 percent of our
workforce. To overcome the impact of covid -19 Indigo raised up to Rs 3000 crore
through QIP. The 2nd wave of covid-19 wave hit the airline industry. Close to 20
countries-imposed travel restrictions from India like flight suspension. The requirement
of covid negative test report by many states has hit domestics travel also so, indigo airline
raises 3000 cores for their working capital of business.

Indigo airline announces to leave without pay scheme for senior employees to tide over
impact of covid-19 2nd wave. Senior employees will have to go compulsory and leave
without payments for up to 4 days per month till September 2021 as passenger traffic is
reduced due to the second wave of COVID-19. Employees in band B and A have not
impacted in this WLP program. Majority of employees are under A and B Which is the
lowest band in the organization.

Indigo airline converted covid crises into new business opportunities. To begin with, the
airline has converted its 10 aircraft into freighters. IndiGo, and many other airlines, carry
cargo in the belly of the plane, the average carrying capacity is between 6 and 9 tons.
Comparing that to these 10 all-cargo planes which can carry 17-20 tons per flight. As
passengers’ revenues tanked during the lockdown, IndiGo and its rival ramped up their
cargo operations due to high demand for transporting essential supplies. The sharp rise
in the international cargo rates - from about $1,000 per ton to $3,000 per ton during the
lockdown has further improved the viability of cargo flights. Though it's not clear how
much IndiGo benefitted from the high cargo rates.

To achieve pre-COVID numbers, IndiGo Airlines, which is one of India's largest domestic
sector airlines, recently launched a creative initiative called "Vaxi Fare scheme for
passengers". According to Vaxi Fare Scheme, passengers who have got the first or both
doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will get a 10 per cent discount on airfare on single, return,
and multiple journeys across India. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., with its subsidiaries
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited (Cathay Dragon), Hong Kong Express Airways
Limited (HK Express) and AHK Air Hong Kong Limited (Air Hong Kong), operated 235
aircraft immediately prior to the onset of COVID-19, directly connecting Hong Kong to
119 destinations in 35 countries worldwide (256 and 54 respectively with codeshare
agreements), including 26 destinations in the Chinese mainland (Cathay Pacific Airways,
2020).

Passenger revenue decreased by 72.2% to HK$10,396 million in the first half of 2020.
RPK traffic decreased by 72.6%. This loss of revenue reflects the precipitous drop in
passenger demand resulting from the extensive travel restrictions, border controls and
quarantine arrangements which were implemented around the world in response to the
pandemic. In total, the airlines carried 4.4 million passengers in the first six months of
the year, 76.0% fewer than in 2019 (Cathay Pacific Airways, 2020).

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

Cathay Pacific Airways introduced substantial available seat kilometers capacity

reductions in the first six months of 2020, amounting to 29% in February, 73% in March,
and 97% in April and May. Overall, capacity was decreased by 65.7% for the first six
months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Cargo increased by 44.1% to
HK$2.71 in the first six months of the year. There was an imbalance between capacity
and demand in the cargo market, which led to higher cargo revenues compared to the
first half of 2019. Cargo revenue in the first half of 2020 was HK$11,177 million, an
increase of 8.8% compared to the same period in 2019 (Cathay Pacific Airways, 2020).

The Hong Kong flag carrier has been hit hard by the pandemic like its industry peers,
with Cathay operating at just 8% of its usual passenger capacity as it forecast
"substantial" losses for a third consecutive half. Cathay Pacific has developed their
loyalty programs into broader lifestyle brands, adding more miles-earning opportunities
through e-commerce, dining, and hotel stays, as Qantas has long done. The brand
"Cathay" will allow users to purchase services and goods through the airline only in Hong
Kong at first, which will be expanded globally later, adding that a credit card in
conjunction would be launched soon.

The global pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on aviation and the hard
truth is that it fundamentally restructures the group to survive. Cathay Pacific Airways
slashed 5,900 jobs and ended its regional Cathay Dragon brand, joining peers in cutting
costs as it grapples with a plunge in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. The
airline would also seek changes in conditions in its contracts with cabin crew and pilots
as part of a restructuring that would cost HK$2.2 billion ($283.9 million).

RESEARCH METHOD

This research has several purposes to achieve in this paper. First, this research aims to
understand the impact of Covid-19 on the Airline Industry. Second, to study the
challenges faced by the Airline Companies during the pandemic. Third, to evaluate the
impact of IndiGo Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways & Qatar Airways. Fourth, to analyze
how the airlines overcame the covid-19 pandemic. Lastly, to ensure that this project
becomes a reliable source of information for future reference. To achieve those
purposes, this research uses several data. Secondary Data is the viable source of
information which can be easily available and cost-effective. Thereby in this research
project, the sources of this secondary data were collected from newspaper articles,
blogs, interview articles of the airline management, website of the airline companies &
interim reports of the companies. The above sources were collected and analyzed from
the company’s perspective for the project’s development. Most of these data are reliable
since they are written & published by industry experts which makes this research project,
a dependable source of information to the topic. The different types of resources had to
be used to understand the hurdles faced by the airlines that were affected due to the
pandemic and thereby encompass them to provide solutions to overcome their
challenges. This secondary data collection was conducted to study the different aspects
of airline business so that it can help to have a comparative analysis of the airlines. Thus,
this helps to formulate the better outcomes and provide favorable suggestions which can
easily be implemented by the companies.

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

RESULTS

Many industries are affected due to Covid-19, but the transportation industry and airlines
companies have been hit immensely, the success and how a company can lead the
uncertainty is something that isn’t easy. Regarding Qatar Airways, in terms of the
evaluations, it was ranked to be the fourth globally in 2019 and declined in 2020 to ninth
place. This decline is due to many reasons: the Qatar government giving priority to
support for the health sector, and the closure laws imposed in some countries that
hindered flights. As mentioned, Qatar Airways in 2021 won the title of the best airline in
the world, due to their strategy.

Qatar airways rating is earned from Skytrax, Skytrax is well known and recognized as a
global Benchmark of airline standards around the world. As the airlines that would earn
their ratings from Skytrax would improve their quality of not only the customers’
experience for airlines but also for the airports across the world. Skytrax uses the quality
scale of 1-star through an exclusive 5-star airline award. Moreover, Skytrax does not
include customer reviews. Relating that to the success of Qatar airways that it wasn’t
from customers perspective, as it was from their mission, vision, and competence. Qatar
Airways became the first global airline in the world to achieve the esteemed 5-Star
COVID-19 Airline Safety Rating by international air transport rating organization, Skytrax.
Moreover, the success of Qatar airways based on Skytrax ratings is because of the
severe COVID-19 hygiene and safety standards and the procedures they follow from the
flight check-in to the on-board aircraft, including a full review of procedural efficiency
checks, visual observation of hygiene and safety at all the stages for the passenger’s
voyage. In addition, the achievement and commitment throughout 2020 and 2021, Qatar
airways commitment in providing the assurance to their passengers across the world
and continues to deal with the ongoing impact and challenges of the crises. No wonder
their success is derived from the day they existed. As business administration students
we know the success of organizations come from recognizing the core competencies
they have and how they can manage to relate that to their external environment
considering suppliers, customers, and even competitors! As their vision mentions to be
the top destination management company in Qatar through innovation, delivering unique
and exclusive experiences according to the customer’s needs and ambition.

In addition, their success is also derived from the strategic partnership contracts with
many airlines in different countries, in May of the year 2020, it concluded a partnership
contract with American Airlines stating to place the Qatar Airways logo on 1,000 domestic
flights, and in January of this year, a contract was signed a partnership contract between
the company and Iberia Airlines stating that Qatar Airways passengers are allowed to go
to 36 destinations on the Iberian Airlines, in addition to Qatar Airways’ sponsorship of
the Spanish club Barcelona and being a company within the One world alliance, which
is the best airline alliance in the world and in May of this year, the company entered into
a contract with the International Air Transport Association, according to the contract, to
train the employees of the union in Qatar Airways to know environmental sustainability.
As mentioned previously, Qatar Airways succeeded in overcoming the Corona crisis,
recovering from its loss, and strengthening its marketing strategy and we find that Qatar
Airways has taken all safety standards and precautionary measures until it became the
first company to complete an Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and the first to be fully
audited and compliant with anti-Covid-19 measures by both Airline Ratings and Skytrax.
According to the Arabic-speaking Sputnik News website, the CEO of Qatar Airways said
that the company returned about two billion dollars to its customers when they canceled
their flights after the spread of the Coronavirus, and this is evidence of the company’s
credibility with its customers, which reported good and excellent evaluations among the
company’s customers. In fact, the service in Qatar Airways is very beautiful and elegant.

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

Moreover, the offered recommendations as follows. First, enhancing trips to the Arab
region and giving priority to Arab citizens in reservations. Second, enhancing the
transport of goods and the creation of a subsidiary company specialized in air transport
only. Third, the company can also create a football club and it will be the first airline to
take this picture. And the company's announcement of random golden cards to promote
the audience to attend the World Cup matches. Fourth, for joining alliances, they would
become bigger and grow better while alliances help the organizations to become a
learning organization that would make it innovative in the face of uncertainty.

DISCUSSION

Although the great impact of corona virus on IndiGo airlines. It is worth noting that
domestic flights in India decreased from the beginning of June of this year due to the
outbreak of the virus significantly. The BBC reported that millions of religious Hindus
gathered in the town of Haridwar in the Himalayas, to participate in the religious Kumbh
Mela festival, amid the country's suffering from a devastating second wave of the
Coronavirus. The marketing strategy and systems used by Indigo Airlines depends first
and foremost on offering comfort to its customers during the flight, since it is a small
airline, it cannot conclude partnership contracts with major international companies.

Mentioning Indigos’ most important marketing methods, which is direct marketing during
Trips: providing comfortable services such as assisting passengers with special services
and carrying heavy equipment on board the plane. And the features of attracting
customers directly, such as full assistance during the flight, free Wi-Fi, and the possibility
of booking directly before takeoff.

So, for the rating of indigo airlines, it was certified by Skytrax as a 4-Star Low-Cost Airline
for the quality of its airport, onboard products, and staff services. Indigo provides a good
low cost for both domestic and international flights with a good cabin staff service. Based
on the customers’ opinions about the company’s services provided, the majority agreed
that the services provided are very good for the paid amount and are very comfortable.

Some customers mentioned that what distinguishes these airlines from any other airlines
in Asia is the cleanliness and the reservation registration very quickly and this is what
prompted Qatar Airways to accept the conclusion of a contract with it in 2017, and for
the recommendations for Indigo that may benefit in the future. First, trying to conclude a
lot of contracts with large airlines in Asia, such as Russian and Chinese airlines, and this
will help increase the company’s profitability and level. Second, attempting to provide the
company’s services in some countries such as: Arab countries, South America, and
Canada. Third, trying to offer the recreational class and working on finding ways to buy
more planes. Lastly, trying to provide exclusive services that are distinctive in them.

Following of how some organizations can really be successful at the beginning and they
can keep their success and growth going is the most important factor for Cathay pacific
success and growth is the entry into China's market, as Chinas’ market is the world’s
most gainful market with the large population of 1.3 billion and surged past Japan. We
can say that China is an attractive market for Cathay Pacific and many airlines worldwide.
Cathay Pacific is called the “Heart of Asia” as they tried to follow the strategy of thinking
globally and acting locally when they would develop the marketing brand image.

Regarding the Rating from Skytrax, Hong Kong’s leading airline was mostly affected by
the pandemic. In 2021 Cathay Pacific was certified as a 5-Star Airline among six
international companies that had the same rating. Moreover, Cathay Pacific is one of the
most important international companies in the field of aviation, as previously explained

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

how the Corona pandemic affected it, Cathay Pacific’s global ranking, in 2017 was
ranked fifth globally, in 2018, it fell to seventh globally, and in 2019 it reached fourth
place, and in 2020, according to the large losses incurred by the company, it fell to fifth
place, and because of this, the decline also took place to the sixth place in the behalf of
2021.

Cathay Pacific were born with a purpose and have the ambition of their airline, aiming
one day to cross the vast Pacific Ocean from China. Cathay Pacific Company succeeded
in overcoming the Corona crisis through several steps: first, it improved safety standards
and applied full precautionary measures in its flights, then, the company improved the
filtering and ventilation system. According to BBC News, it was mentioned that the only
good thing in the aircraft is that the ventilation system includes really powerful filters
which means that from our point of view they are relatively safer, as they have a
performance comparable with those used to maintain clean air in operating rooms in
hospitals and clean industrial rooms and this is one of the most important forms of indirect
marketing, where the most important thing for a passenger is hygiene and health
standards, and the free insurance for its customers against the Corona virus by default
when booking a flight with the airline and the insurance also covers medical expenses
related to the virus, including hospitalization.

From the customers perspective in Trip Advisor the company holds an excellent degree
in all the services it provides on board, and the site has nominated it as the best global
airline in the world for 2017 and 2018. It is worth noting that what distinguishes it from
other airlines is that the level of its flights to the African continent does not differ even in
the greatest details from any other destination. Indicating some suggestions to help it
recover from the effects of the Corona crisis, which it may have suffered from so far.
First, finding various sources of financing, such as: selling a share of its fixed capital to
one of the other airlines. Second, trying to increase the number of destinations that the
company's flights reach. Third, trying to reduce the salaries of senior managers in the
company. In the end, expecting the rankings of the three companies in the coming years:
Qatar Airways will occupy the first place for two years from the first, Indigo Airlines will
enter the club of the largest airlines in the world by 2030, and Cathay Pacific we expect
that it will get the title the best airline in the world in 2025.

CONCLUSION

The purpose of this report is to find out the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the Airlines
Industry and to study the challenges faced by the Airline industry during the Pandemic.
To get the correct initiatives, the three successful Airline companies that are, Qatar
Airways, IndiGo Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways are taken to study. The Covid-19
pandemic has affected the airline industry severely and halted global aviation for months.
However, it has been observed that the changing structure and strategies of each airline
company is quite different from one another, as well as the various aspects of the Airline
industry. Noticing that Qatar airways were mainly focusing on three aspects: Product
quality, product reliability and world class network reach to become a world-class carrier
and cargo service provider with global reach. Furthermore, IndiGo airlines mainly
focused on providing quality and reliable air facility at reasonable prices. And Cathay
Pacific’s vision is to be the most admired airline in the world. Moreover, the main aim of
the report is to acknowledge the actions and solutions taken by the Airlines industry to
overcome the COVID-19 pandemic situation and to identify how the chosen companies
took the correct measures to control and manage the situation.

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International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality in Asia Pasific (IJTHAP) Vol. 6 No.
3, pp. 18-28, October, 2023
E-ISSN: 2654-7945 P-ISSN: 2685-8800
https://www.ejournal.aibpmjournals.com/index.php/IJTHAP

It is worth noting that Skytrax ratings gave a unique hike to the success of Qatar airways
and IndiGo airlines because of their severe COVID-19 hygiene safety standards and
their procedures of flights Check-in to the onboard aircrafts during and after the Nobel
pandemic situation of Qatar airways. And 4-Star low-cost airlines for quality of airport,
staff maintenance and onboarding products of IndiGo airlines. And Cathay Pacific was
certified for the 5-Star airline for safety standards and applied full precautionary
measures in its flights. According to the collected data it is shown how and why the
airlines industry had to experience immense loss of revenue due to the covid pandemic
and bear a great financial crisis. The airline industry currently has no backup plan for this
pandemic. Without a backup plan, the airline industry will have to face a great financial
crisis in the future.

After reading this report one could get the point that it is necessary to take favorable
safety measures at the right time according to the situation like Qatar airways did and
without wasting time or waiting for the situation to get worse like Cathay pacific airways.
Finally, it is ensured that this project becomes a reliable source of information for future
references. The sample is relatively accurate in accordance with the current scenario
and suggests adding the number of samples with a period to get the appropriate data of
the present time.

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