COVID-19 impact: 10% aviation jobs lost between April 2020 and December 2021, government says

About 10 per cent of jobs in India’s aviation sector were lost between April 2020 and December 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh said Monday.

“Total job losses at airlines, airports, ground handling and air cargo is about 19,200,” Singh said in a written response to a question in Rajya Sabha.

The job losses are about 10 percent of the total number of jobs (about 1.9 lakh) in these sectors, he added.

While the total number of employees working at airlines, airports and ground handling agencies decreased between April 2020 and December 2021, the number of people working for air cargo companies increased during the same period, Singh said.

“The total number of employees in the air freight industry has increased from approximately 9,600 as of March 31, 2020 to approximately 10,500 as of December 31, 2021,” he said.

The total number of employees working for airlines in India has fallen from 74,800 as of March 31, 2020 to 65,700 as of December 31, 2021, he noted.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) manages more than 100 airports across the country. However, major airports such as those in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mangaluru and Thiruvananthapuram are run by private operators.

As of March 31, 2020, the number of employees working at Indian airport operators was 73,400. By December 31, 2021, this had been reduced to 65,700, Singh said.

The workforce at ground handling agencies has decreased from 30,800 in April 2020 to 27,600 in December 2021.

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