Mumbai: It would not be before 2022 that Indian businesses would be able to recover as most of them are adversely impacted due to Covid pandemic, an EY survey said.
Majority (92%) of the respondents reported that their businesses are adversely impacted by the pandemic. An almost identical percentage of respondents expect recovery in their businesses by the end of 2022, EY survey of major Indian corporate with ICF said.
“The need of the hour is to pivot strategic thinking by relooking at fleet utilization in passenger vs. freight cargo, renegotiating lease agreements and deferring airplane orders to a future date while coming up with hedging strategies based on future fuel requirements, leveraging low oil prices,” Dinkar V, India EY restructuring partner said.
The unprecedented outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic managed to severely impact most of the sectors and industries across the country. With lockdown restrictions imposed by the central government, the aviation sector came to a grinding halt with no commercial flights taking off for close to a quarter of the year, the EY report said.
The survey said that globally too, the situation is not any different, with several airlines such as Virgin Australia and Malaysian Airlines, facing the heat due to the pandemic. “Though global airlines are proactively taking measures to tide through the crisis, Indian airline operators, while raising interim finance to meet their debt obligations, need to think beyond meeting immediate obligations for a more sustainable operating model for the near- to mid-term. They should also keep in mind the sluggish recovery of corporate travel and subdued discretionary travel in the months following the unlocking of restrictions,” it added.
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