The Impact of Coronavirus on the Aviation Sector in Nigeria: a Case Study of Airpeace Airlines
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives Of Study
The primary objective of this study is to determine the impact of coronavirus disease on Airpeace airlines and the specific objectives are:
- to identify the major issues being faced by Airpeace airlines.
- to evaluate the steps taken by the government in reducing the effect of coronavirus on Airpeace airlines.
- to determine the impact of the shutting down of airlines on Nigeria’s economy.
- to make recommendations on how to reduce the losses of Airpeace airlines.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual Clarification
An Overview of Coronavirus
Coronavirus (CoV) is a virus that is transmitted from animals to humans, causing diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) (World Health Organization, 2020). The term “Coronavirus” is inferred from the Latin word “Corona” which means “crown” (Correa, 2020). It’s given this name due to its crown-like projection on the virus’s surface (Feldman, 2020). The first coronavirus disease which infected birds was first identified by specialists in 1937. During the 1960s human coronaviruses were discovered by scientists. There are four primary types of coronaviruses that can contaminate humans, and they include 229E (alpha coronavirus), NL63 (alpha coronavirus), OC43 (beta coronavirus), and HKU1 (beta coronavirus) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The other three less common types of coronaviruses include MERS-CoV (which made its primary appearance in 2012 and is the virus liable for the disease, MERS), SARS-CoV (which made its primary appearance in 2002 and is the virus liable for the disease, SARS), and SARS-CoV-2 (which is a new strain of virus that first appeared in 2019 and is responsible for the disease, COVID-19).
MERS-CoV, is a type of coronavirus that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and it stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (World Health Organization, 2019). This virus is zoonotic in nature, which infers that it is transmitted from animals to humans (World Health Organization, 2019). This virus is believed to have originated from bats and transmitted to camels (World Health Organization, 2019). Humans contracted this virus via direct or indirect contact with dromedary camels and further spread it through close contact with fellow humans. Coughing, shortness of breath and fever are common symptoms of MERS-CoV (World Health Organization, 2019). Pneumonia is likewise a symptom however it is not always present. The death rate of this virus is approximately 35% (World Health Organization,2019).
SARS-CoV, which stands for Severe Acute Respiratory System Coronavirus, is a type of coronavirus which was first identified in China in 2002. This virus is airborne and can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact with an infected person, through contact with the respiratory droplets of an infected person and contact with a contaminated surface. It’s a short-term virus. Its symptoms include fever, headache, cough, difficulty in breathing, and so forth. An estimation of the fatality rate of this virus is 3% (World Health Organization, n.d.). Since 2004, there has been no known transmission of this virus.
SARS-CoV-2 which stands for Severe Acute Respiratory System Coronavirus 2 is a type of Coronavirus that is responsible for the disease COVID-19, a disease that the world is engaging till date. This virus was first discovered in 2019 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Wuhan, China (Felman, 2020). Eventually, this virus spread across every country, prompting the World Health Organization to proclaim it a pandemic on the 30th of January (World Health Organization, 2020). The source of COVID-19 still remains obscure till date, despite the fact that people are of the opinion that it was transmitted to humans by animals due to the fact that the principal group of patients that contracted COVID-19 virus came in contact with a live animal and a seafood market (MedicalNewsToday, 2020). Thus, it’s said to have a zoonotic origin.
At the point when this infection broke out in Wuhan, China, toward the finish of 2019, it claimed the lives of more than one thousand and eight hundred people and infected over seventy thousand people within the initial fifty days of its breakout (ResearchGate, 2020). As at 14th April 2020, the world had recorded one million, eight hundred and seventy-three thousand, two hundred and sixty-five cases of corona and one hundred and eighteen thousand, eight hundred and fifty-four deaths (Niji Oni and Co., 2020). As per World Health Organization’s Director-General, Tedros Ad-hanom Ghebreyesus, the demise rate was higher in the male sex, the old, and among individuals with diabetes, hypertension or breathing difficulties (Tedros Ad-hanom Ghebreyesus, 2020).
The incubation period of this virus, which is the time between when a patient was exposed to a virus and when the symptoms start to show, is averagely 5-6 days and can range from 1-14 days. The symptoms of coronavirus that are most common incorporate dry cough, fever, and exhaustion. Smell or taste loss, conjunctivitis, migraine, throat pain, muscle pain, diarrhea, nausea, skin rash, dizziness are other less common symptoms. Extreme symptoms include lack of appetite, high temperature, shortness of breath, severe chest pain, and so on. Anyone can get contaminated with coronavirus yet more established grown-ups and people with certain clinical issues, for example, diabetes, hypertension, corpulence, malignancy, and so on, are at a higher danger of creating serious intricacies on the off chance that they contract the infection.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
The research design and procedures adopted in carrying out this research work are discussed in this chapter. It defines the research method, the sampling technique, the population, the research design, the research instrument, the data collection process as well as the analysis of the data.
RESEARCH DESIGN
This study adopts a descriptive research design using the survey method. The use of a survey is appropriate as it is reliable, of low cost, easily managed, and efficient to obtain data from a reasonably large population as it enables each member to be questioned.
RESEARCH POPULATION
The research population sample for this study is drawn from both the employees and the customers of Airpeace airlines, Rivers state.
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
In this research study, a simple random sampling will be employed in selecting the respondents. This sampling method is chosen because it provides every member of the population an equal chance to be selected. The sample size for this study will be 110 respondents, which would comprise of 30 employees and 80 customers of Airpeace airlines.
RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS
This study would use a quantitative research approach; the key method used in this study would be a well-structured closed and open-ended questionnaire. The interpretation of the knowledge would use descriptive statistics. In the study, frequency distribution and basic percentage (percent) were used. By using the chi-square model, the formulated hypotheses were evaluated.
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF INSTRUMENTS
Validity and reliability are the most significant aspects of any system of measurement. Reliability must have the degree to which the same result on recurring occasions is obtained by an instrument or any measurement technique such as questionnaire, observation or examination. After several trials, it is the permanence or the uniformity. It is necessary to remember that reliability is related to outcomes and not respondents. Validity is the degree to which a system determines what it means to measure or produce.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
HYPOTHESIS II
H0: The shutting down of airlines in Nigeria doesn’t have an impact on Nigeria’s economy.
H1: The shutting down of airlines in Nigeria has an impact on Nigeria’s economy.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND CONCLUSION
Discussion
The economic impact of COVID -19 has been found to be disruptive for aviation sector. Losses incurring due to the pandemic is even higher than the combined effect of crisis of 9/11, global financial crises of the year 2008 and Iceland volcanic eruption in the year 2010. On the basis of current scenario, it is clear that Pandemic has raised the anxiety and doubt among passengers which is mainly responsible for declining revenues of the industry. In this context it has been determined that presence of large numbers of COVID cases in any particular nation would restrict the passengers to travel that nation.
Also, it has been estimated that domestic travel may show some demand from passengers but international travel would not be possible till all countries would give nod on uniform protocols for receiving a passenger from other parts of the world. Hence, for surviving in this situation airlines have decided to initiate its domestic flying operations with the inclusion of sanitisation as a quality standard along with the safety and sustainability in their working culture.
Further, new norms for promoting sanitised travel has raised the turnaround time of airlines which has created an urgency to develop a new and fast technology for sanitisation and cleaning purpose, such as, self-sanitising toilets, robots and artificial intelligence. Many of the airlines, such as, Alaska Airlines, Air France and Qatar Airways are proceeding to adopt these technologies. Also, countries specially from Asian region like, India, Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Malaysia are required to have some financial plans supported by their government, such as, bailouts, tax relief, loans, waiving of parking fees/charges etc. Also, it is important to provide a rescue package for providing payroll support to the employees of aviation along with the counselling and stress management support.
Further, many airports are found to be unprepared and have raised a situation of dilemma among passengers due to the presence of various quarantine protocols, medical certifications and declaration forms. Also, quarantine period has added a lot of chaos in managing the passengers as this period varies due to the different norms of different states and countries. Also, many airports are found to be
incompetent in informing their passengers about flight cancellations which has raised the outrage among passengers (Bailey, 2020). Hence, on the basis of above discussion present study has presented a SWOT analysis of the aviation industry focusing on the situation due to pandemic.
Conclusions and Recommendation
The aviation industry in Nigeria is already beset with many challenges prior to the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some of these challenges include the absence of coherent air transport policy, absence of a national carrier, poor oversight by regulatory agencies, poor management by operators, deteriorating facilities, poor security, incessant closures of airports for upgrades and maintenance, intermittent air crashes, poor safety records and so on. The current Covid-19 pandemic can only worsen the plight of Airpeace Airline in Nigeria.
In an airline industry survey conducted in April, nearly 40% of the respondents indicated that they would wait six months or more after official travel restrictions are lifted, before they would consider travelling by air again (International Air Transportation Association, 2020b). Recent trends towards remote working and video conferencing would potentially reduce demand for overseas travel in the long term (World Bank, 2020).
Whenever the industry re-opens, the most immediate and perhaps most visible change that will be witnessed is social distancing, touchless travel and passengers will need to be fit to travel. Passengers must arrive earlier than they used to at airports and they should expect more delay. In the immediate future, the turnaround time for local and international travels will increase, because aircraft will be sanitised every time the planes land
There will be increased movement to the digital spacewhere physical interaction would be reduced drastically. Most of the flight operations will be on digital platforms. New products that will be come into being in the industry will emphasize health, safety and compliance; and not necessarily comfort and leisure that were the focus in pre- Covid-19 era.
Reference
- Adams J., Hafiz TA. and Raeside, R. (2014). Research Methods for Business and Social Science Students, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
- Bernard, H.R. (2002). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative method 3rd Ed., Walnut Creek, California: Altamira Press.
- Birchler, U. and Bütler, M. (1999). Information economics, Routledge.
- Boeije, H. (2010). Analysis in Qualitative Research Ltd.1st Ed., Sage publications.
- Brinkmann, S. and Kvale, S. (2015). InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing 3, Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
- Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods Fifth, Oxford University Press. Bryman, A. (2008). Social Research Methods 3rd Ed., Oxford University Press.
- Bryman, A. and Burgess, B. (Eds.). (1994). Analyzing Qualitative Data, London: Routledge.
- Buckley, J.W and Chiang C.H. (1976). Research methodology and business decisions, Canada, National Association of Accountants.
- Choi, S.Y., Stahl, D.O. and Whinston, A.B. (1997). The economics of electronic commerce, Indianapolis: Macmillan Technical Publishing.
