The transport sector was one of the biggest casualties of the pandemic as borders shut down.

Airlines have been soaring high in the past decade, riding on the popularity of cheap travel. But in a snap, fear of catching COVID 19 killed everyone's appetite for globe-trotting. 

No one wants to sit strapped, knee-by-thigh close to strangers, in an enclosed inescapable space for hours,  zipping from one end of the world to the other.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated revenues will plummet by $419 billion this year, half of the haul in 2019.

In terms of employment, it's 25 million airline workers losing their jobs.

Some 865 million people who rely on  aviation saw their livelihood evaporate as travel  halted and 65 percent of plane fleets went in storage.

In the Philippines alone, 420,000 airline workers are getting the chop.

For the first six months of 2020, Philippine Airlines (PAL) bled P21 billion, almost seven times its P3.3 billion losses in the same period last year. Revenues plunged 55 percent to P37 billion.

To keep  the flag carrier afloat, Chairman Lucio C. Tan infused P18 billion.

But PAL incurred over P15.9 billion COVID19-related refund requests when it canceled over 60,000 flights and grounded 1.3 million passengers in the lockdown.

As of late September, the airline has refunded P12.72 billion, 80 percent of the total.

On addition, PAL put off its plane orders for the next half decade and will lay off 2,730 employees, 35 per cent of its work force of 7,800, as it now operates at less than 15 percent capacity.

Cebu Air Inc. (CEB) fared no better. 

After earning P7.14 billion in the first semester of 2019, CEB bled P9.14 billion this year and  revenues plunged from P44.7 billion to P17.3 Billion.

In order to survive, CEB has to operate at least 50 percent of its capacity but could only manage 10 per cent when it resumed flying after three months of lockdown.

From 450 flights per day, it's down to 40 to 50 flights daily.

"We don’t know how long this will be drawn out," Canduce Iyog, VP for Marketing and Distribution

conceded.

"We used to base our forecasts on historical load factors depending on the season. Now, everything's out of the window."

After stashing away at least nine of its 76 planes in a boneyard in the Australian desert, CEB plans to store more of its fleet, having already delayed or cancelled its order of over 30 new Airbus aircraft.

CEB is likewise laying off 800 employees, 25 percent of its 4,000 work force, after retiring 200 earlier.

And despite cash constraints, CEB coughed up P2.4 billion refunds for cancelled bookings, half of its P4.8 Billion refund requests.

This November, CEB raised  P24.45 billion fresh capital to ensure its recovery.

For its part, Air Asia Philippines lost P2.3 billion in the second quarter  as passenger volumes nose-dived  99 percent. 

Only last year, it was in the black, with P353 million profits.

The pandemic compelled the airline to cut jobs and salaries, defer aircraft deliveries and shelve its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

While Air Asia resumed flights on six domestic routes, it currently operates at just 19 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity.

Nevertheless, "Just like every  crisis we have faced before, I remain optimistic we'll come out stronger," declared Air Asia Group CEO Anthony Francis "Tony" Fernandes.

IATA President and CEO Alexander de Juniac does not share his gung-ho outlook, however.

"The recovery of international passenger demand is virtually non-existent," he summed up bluntly.

"Damage on air travel extends to medium term, with long-haul international travel being the most severely affected," de Juniac conceded.

Experts agree. Travel demand will not come back to pre-covid levels until 2025. 

Economic recovery will take  longer, possibly by 2030.

The world has not even fully recovered from the 2008 economic meltdown when the pandemic struck.

Up to now, passengers are reluctant to fly. Those who do prefer short-haul travel, so the domestic market is opening up ahead of international. 

Commercial airlines now function like chartered services, doing repatriation flights outside their routes, scrapping their hub-and- spoke model.

Goverments reopen and close borders at will, lifting and reimposing quarantine as they see fit.

Desperate for revenues, airlines are pulling all stops. 

Emirates offers to pay for the medical costs of any passenger catching COVID19 on their  flights.

For avid flyers with money to burn, Eva Air and Qantas mount socially-distanced flights to nowhere, nostalgic flyovers to tourist hot spots.

Singapore Airlines cancelled a similar offering after getting flak from environmentalists codemning the waste of fuel.

Unfazed, PAL sold socially- distanced seats for a 3-hour flight to nowhere, priced at P28.5K for business class and P11K for economy, at the end of October.

And this December, in the midst of the pandemic, the flag carrier even achieved its first five-star rating as a major airline, from US-based Airline Passenger Experience Association ( APEX).

Despite everything, the pandemic averted untold millions of tonnes of aviation emissions. 

Too bad, nobody's counting  amidst the mayhem of bankruptcies, strandings, furloughs and lay-offs.