Understandably, the travel restrictions and the strict health protocols such as physical distancing, compulsory wearing of masks, health certificates and additional time needed for all the checks for air passengers have caused most people to avoid traveling by air. This in turn has slashed airline revenues and put them in severe liquidity crises.

Physical-distancing rules require airlines to initially limit seat capacity to 50 percent. Even though the Transportation Ministry has eased restrictions to 70 percent seat capacity and lengthened the validity of health certificates from three days to two weeks, airline cash flows continue to suffer.

On the other hand, air freight services have not been adversely affected. Instead they have tended to increase on several routes across the vast archipelago. This cargo service could help airlines to survive the pandemic.

The volume of air passengers that nosedived 80 percent two months ago has slightly increased and the number of flights has crept up from 20 percent to 40 percent, compared with the 2019 figure. But since not all service routes have been reopened, it will be difficult for airline companies to push the number of passengers further up.

The flow of take-offs and landings at Jakarta’s international airport of Soekarno-Hatta last month averaged 300 to 350 daily, far below the 1,100 daily in 2019.

Many analysts have predicted that air travel will continue to be weak until 2025, as people remain hesitant to travel by air. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that global flights would recover by 2023. This estimate is widely seen by various parties as too optimistic, but in general, the results of expert studies have indeed showed that it will take three to five years for the airline industry to recover to 2019 levels.

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