Governments have now realised how vital the LCC and regional airlines are and subsequently have set in place a number of acts to ensure their survival post-pandemic. COVID-19 has been as devastating as 9/11 to the airline industry and, at this point, there is no end date in sight.
The daily tragedy of lives lost to the pandemic is horrific but there will come a turning point. While no-one will forget what has occurred around the world, we will recover from this and things will return to some semblance of normality.
Slowly it appears that each government department is dealing with its own ongoing crisis, as other departments within the system look forwards and plan to ensure as many LCC and regional carriers are still in business post COVID- 19.
In part, the credit for pushing through these plans has to go to Montserrat Barriga, Director General of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA), and Faye Malarkey Black of the Regional Airline Association. Both have tirelessly lobbied their governments to ensure airlines, in particular the smaller regional carriers, get the government support and funding that they are entitled to.
For many it’s simply a case of dealing with the here and now in lockdown. But Barriga and Black are ensuring that when the time returns to drive to the multi-storey carparks and over-crowded airports there will be an airline to take us where we want to go.
In the past we’d moan about queues, parking and waiting for luggage, but right now I think many of us wish we were in amongst the hustle and bustle of an average working day.
