Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is hopeful that after the resumption of flights, the revenue, which had dropped by Rs. 30 billion in the previous fiscal year, will increase.
According to records available to ProPakistani, CAA has earned Rs. 31 billion in the first six months of the financial year 2021-22 after the resumption of flight operation that had been disturbed by COVID-19 restrictions.
CAA is expecting Rs. 60-70 billion revenues at the end of this financial year if flight operation remains the same for the next six months.
Aeronautical income in FY 2016-17 was Rs. 63 billion, which gradually increased to Rs. 69 billion in FY 2017-18 and reached Rs. 79 billion in FY 2018-19. In the financial year 2019-20, due to COVID, it dropped by Rs. 10 billion and reached Rs. 69 billion. In the previous fiscal year, the aeronautical revenue had dropped by Rs. 30 billion.
The aviation sector of Pakistan, along with the global aviation industry, was also affected by the curtailment of flight operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Initially, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) suspended all commercial aviation activities in the country. NCOC further acted to resume the flight operations by keeping a close eye on the global trend of COVID-19 and making sure that health protocols were being followed in airports.
In March 2020, all international flight operations were suspended due to an increased wave of COVID-19, but by May 2020, NCOC had to allow international flight operations for outbound passengers only.
All types of international passenger flights were resumed according to the pre-COVID-19 schedule in the second week of August 2020.
May 2021 saw a decrease in international flights as operations again reduced to 20 percent of the approved schedule, but the decline was short-lived, and international flight operations increased to 50 percent of schedule in July 2021.
NCOC announced the resumption of all international flights as a pre-COVID-19 situation on 10 November 2021, raising the hopes of CAA that this will lead to an increase in its income.
