The corona19 crisis virtually blocked the world's sky, leading to a crisis of existence throughout the aviation industry, from large airlines to subcontractors responsible for in-flight meals and cleaning.

According to the airline industry, the number of international passengers in the fourth week of March was 8,599, down 95.5% from the previous year.

Last month, the number of airline passengers that combined domestic and international flights totaled 1,74,583, falling to less than 2 million for the first time since the statistics gathered in January 1997.

Of the 374 national airliners, 324, or 87%, have no place to go, so they are still standing on the main parking lot.

The number of passengers per day at Incheon International Airport, which exceeded 200,000 per day, has dropped to less than 10,000 for the first time since its opening in 2001, and the number of flights has dropped sharply to 100 flights per day, and has been reversed at Jeju International Airport.

As a result of the aviation association's calculation of the amount of damage based on the national carrier's international transportation performance, the first half of this year, the national airline's sales damage is expected to be at least KRW 6.44 trillion.

If the sales hit continues, the inside and outside of the industry expects that the airline will not be able to endure a high fixed cost with cash.

In the case of the aviation industry, the fixed cost portion of operating expenses is quite high (35 ~ 40%), so it is not easy to flexibly cut costs despite large-scale sales hits.

In terms of cash outflows, operating expenses and interest expenses excluding tangible depreciation expenses, Korean Air is estimated to have an average monthly cash flow of 800 billion won, Asiana Airlines' 490 billion won, and Jeju Air's 100 billion won.

Considering this, Korean Air holds 1.2 times the amount of cash based on the monthly cash outflow as of the end of last year, Jeju Air has 2.0 times the cash, Tway Air has 1.5 times the cash, and Jin Air has 4.1 times the cash. is.

Because of this, some observers say that most airlines will run out of cash in the first half.

Even in the first quarter of this year, Korean Air, the industry's No. 1, is turning to deficit, and it seems that each airline will have the worst operating results.

The aviation industry actually went through the restructuring process by fetching wages, paid and unpaid leave and hopeless leave, followed by hopeless retirement cards.

Following the notice of the termination of contracts to 80 bookkeepers in the first or second year of probation, Easta Airlines decided on the policy of restructuring 750 employees, or 45% of employees, through retirement and layoffs, and detailed personnel and methods. The back is under discussion.
Reductions have already been blown to airline contractors responsible for meals and cleaning.

Among Korean Air's in-flight meal partners, 1,000 of the 1,800 working in Incheon were advised and 300 of the remaining 800 are on leave.

Asiana KO, a partner of Asiana Airlines, announced that it will take an unpaid leave indefinitely next month.

Asiana AH reported to 50% of employees that they wished to retire, and another subcontractor was reported to notify all employees of unpaid leave and forced them to resign.

The Aviation Association sent a complaint to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, saying, "The domestic aviation industry base is collapsing, and 840,000 aviation industry and related industry workers are faced with a crisis in employment." "This is an impossible situation."

The aviation association suggested reducing taxes such as exempting aircraft property taxes, as well as expanding large-scale policy fund support such as expanding unsecured low-interest loans to all airlines and guaranteeing government payments for bonds.

(Photo = Yonhap News)