Recovery  may  take up to two years: IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta

India's largest domestic airline IndiGo is keeping a tight control over its costs to tide through the current pandemic. It may take anywhere between 18 and 24 months to recover from the current situation to come back to the pre-covid levels of travel demand, Ronojoy Dutta, the airline's chief executive, told Mint in an email interview. He added that a recovery depended upon how other countries resume their international operations. Here are the edited excerpts of the interview.

Due to the pandemic, leisure flying has taken a back seat. Is safety the biggest factor that is keeping people away from flying?

We can all agree to the fact that due to the pandemic situation in the country, business and leisure travel may take a backseat for some time until the virus subsides to a greater extent. However, the risk of transmission of covid-19 from one passenger to another passenger on board is very low, making flying the safest way to travel. The reasons for this are that the customers sit facing forward and not toward each other, seat backs provide a barrier, the use of HEPA filters and the direction of the air flow on board (from ceiling to floor), and the limited movement onboard aircraft once seated add to the onboard protection. Furthermore, as a responsible airline, we have also taken various steps to ensure that our passengers and crew members are safe while onboard.

Source: www.livemint.com

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