There’s an undeniable fact that in every business, competition exists. Competition is very important to businesses. When a market is competitive, there is room to maximize the perks and products services that are provided by the company. With competition, it opens doors to businesses to be innovative and creative to mark up their company’s image better than the rest. Although a healthy level of competition is important to maintain the best services for the lowest possible prices, competition does not always ensure the stability of the industry. Airlines have to deal with high fixed costs that do not vary with the level of output in the short run. For airlines, fixed costs include buying and maintaining aircraft fleets and many more.
The global effect of COVID-19 has emerged as a global economic shutdown. Companies were forced to stop and compromise which has led to bankruptcy and all of a sudden, the rise of unemployment cases worsens in the aviation sector as well. To sustain finances, difficult decisions were made in companies like travel and tourism. Aviation today is thriving for hope for a greener pasture despite the pandemic outrage.
To address the rising cases of COVID-19 globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that there are several vaccines available now. Based on WHO, the first mass vaccination program started in early December 2020 and the number of vaccination doses administered is updated daily. At least 13 different vaccines (across 4 platforms) have been administered namely: Pfizer/BioNTech; the SII/Covishield and AstraZeneca/AZD1222 vaccines; Janssen/Ad26.COV 2.S developed by Johnson & Johnson; Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (mRNA 1273); Sinopharm and Sinovac.
In order for the vaccines to be in global reach, airlines served their part in the vaccination drive in every country across the globe. We have seen the worse cases in every country, the rising death tolls and we’re not letting it happen again. According to the vaccine tracker released by Bloomberg, more than 6.5 billion doses have been administered across 184 countries. The latest rate is roughly 25.4 million doses distributed in a day. In addition, it has been labeled as the biggest vaccination campaign in history. The number will not end in six billion since the campaign is still ongoing to reach more and to stop the surge of the virus.
So far, the Philippines has administered at least 48,925,516 doses of COVID vaccines that are equivalent to 22.6% of the country’s population that had been vaccinated. By working cooperatively with the airlines, numbers of vaccinated individuals will be observed before the end of the year.
Passengers are supposed to be the highlight of every plane flight. They give life to the helpless seats waiting to board you in your destination. It must be boring for the crewmember or the pilot to fly loads of vaccines instead of people. But on top of that, it is their primary duty to help. At the same time, this is a global issue and most of us were lost on how to help and reach out. Hence, the airlines have extended their services by carrying loads of vaccines almost every day and they could have been more proud of themselves for doing a valuable service to different countries.
Fortunately, the number of cases subsided with the collaborative effort by the government and the private sectors. Local and international borders are now open after the GCQ in NCR last month. Airlines like PAL, CEB, AirAsia, and other international airlines have been the helpline of the government in the said vaccination drive. Through regular vaccination drives, more people are now getting vaccinated and are ready to travel once and for all. On the other hand, airlines together with their travel perks are now ready to set foot in the tourist destinations in the country. This is in line with their strong advocacy of bringing back the glow of tourism in the Philippines.
Despite the“competition”, what I see in this new phase of new normal are the stories of pure “bayanihan”.Our oneness rising above all storms has taught us a life lesson. It draws hope and courage that in these trying times, we can be champions by working together hand-in-hand.
The pandemic has put us into the test, tough test but we have seen stories of inspiration; hope from our frontliners to our COVID-survivors, to our MSMEs who are paving their way in the business industry sector. In this day, the road we take may be stiff and bumpy, but with the collective efforts, we are seeing a beacon of hope in the eyes of every person surviving and thriving to have a better life despite the crisis.
Admit it, this pandemic has taught us to be humane again. It taught us to be vulnerable, and at the same time unbeatable that no matter how big the storm in our lives is, we can be still and life must go on. We may have been busy existing that we may have forgotten the other aspects of why we are living and what we are living for. Humanity is alive; let us keep it this way but not with the virus. It only shows that with the government alone, the process of revival will not be this fast but with the people and sectors working together, there is hope when we are one.
