The COVID-19 pandemic had a massive impact on the Indian aviation sector in 2020 and major airlines facing losses and challenging times laid off employees, sent them on leave without pay, or cut their salaries. The government also had to extend the deadline for submitting bids for Air India five times during the year. It estimated that just 50-60 million passengers -- 40-50 million domestic and less than 10 million international -- would travel in 2020-21. In 2019-20, approximately 205 million air passengers -- 140 million domestic and 65 million international -- travelled in India. While Air India was unable to get a private owner in 2020, bankrupt airline Jet Airways was able to find one.

Source: Mint December 26, 2020 09:45 UTC