Budget airline IndiGo, in view of an impending health scare following the lifting of the 21-day lockdown, has decided to bring in a few changes in its operating procedures such sanitising the aircraft more frequently and stopping in-flight meal service briefly.

Further, the airline’s CEO Ronojoy Dutta said it will fill the maximum 50 per cent seats in airport buses.

In an email to the employees, Dutta wrote, “We have always been safety-conscious and now we must be health conscious as well. With this in mind, we are looking at changing many of our operating procedures”.

However, these new procedures are yet to be finalised.

“But we will deep clean our aircraft more frequently, we will be discontinue meal service for a brief period and we will run our coaches at a maximum load of 50% capacity. We will be coming out with the new set of operating procedures very soon,” Dutta said in an email to employees on Friday, which has been accessed by PTI.

“In situations like these, companies do not manage to growth or profitability but to liquidity. That means our singular focus is on cash flow. We are examining all our fixed costs and looking for ways to minimize them,” he said.

Dutta said IndiGo’s plan post lockdown will be going forward to first start the services and gradually ramp up the capacity.

As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has imposed a 21-day lockdown till April 14 to contain the Coronavirus pandemic.

Consequently, all domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this time period.

However, cargo flights, offshore helicopter operations, medical evacuation flights and special flights permitted by Indian aviation regulator DGCA are permitted to operate during the lockdown.

Meanwhile, a clarity on the lifting of the lockdwn is yet awaited as several states and experts have called for an extension of the shutdown as the number of Coronavirus cases have continued to rise.

According to a report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the aviation industry that is going through a tough phase amid the coronavirus crisis, is likely to register a net loss of $39 billion during April-June 2020.

The report further said that revenue of the airlines may fall by 68 per cent during the quarter. The fall in demand would be the deepest in the second quarter, with a 71 per cent drop.

Variable costs are expected to drop sharply by some 70 per cent in the second quarter, largely in line with the reduction of an expected 65 per cent cut in second quarter capacity, said the IATA report. The price of jet fuel has also fallen sharply, although we estimate that fuel hedging will limit the benefit to a 31 per cent decline.

Fixed and semi-fixed costs amount to nearly half an airline’s cost.