Leisure Air travel needs better planning, says chairman ASG group

Thursday, February 8, 2024

As an indispensable asset in terms of revenue generation, an aircraft generates value when it’s flying and working at close to peak capacity. In the meantime, an aircraft that is not in working condition for any reason, be it related to maintenance, breakdown, flight cancellation, etc., simply exploits money and nothing else. As per a rather conservative evaluation made by Boeing, on ground, a 1–2-hour aircraft might cost an airline around $10-20,000. 

The industry people will tell that the definite cost is more in the region of $150,000, if not more. Yet, as most AOG events are unpredictable, airlines and air operators, particularly those aiming on Europe travel, are aware that there’s one thing worse than an unforeseen incapacity to fly. That’s this business’s seasonal nature with capacity linked firmly to the patterns of travel of the travelers and vacationers.

Before COVID-19, a visible trend arose in the international travel sector: leisure travel has started outperforming business travel in several countries and regions of the world. The compound annual growth rate from 2010 to 2019, for leisure air travels stood at 6.6%, considerably higher than the 3.3% rate for business trips done through air, as per McKinsey & Company.

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