One of the defining characteristics of air transport is its unparalleled ability to overcome the constraints of time and distance. While absolute distances between locations remain unchanged, innovations in transportation technology have reduced the time taken to travel from one place to another. This has led to a shrinking of relative distance and a widening of the spatial extent of interaction. Long-distance travel has been one of the major beneficiaries of improvements in aviation technology.
However, air traffic is very sensitive to factors external to the aviation sector, such as oil crises, economic recessions, disease outbreaks, etc. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21 caused unprecedented disruption to international mobility. The image of the world as a ‘global village’ with easy cross-boundary movement rapidly changed into one where national (and in many cases, sub-national) borders were actively protected. Flight bans and travel restrictions were imposed by a majority of countries, severely constraining the movement of people. There have been, however, geographic variations in the imposition of border control measures by countries.
While mobility restrictions are considered to be effective in combating the spread of infectious diseases, they also have associated economic implications. The contraction of cross-border spatial interaction impacted the tourism and aviation sectors, leading as well to cross-boundary return migration. During the pandemic, international air traffic was impacted to a greater extent than domestic traffic.
This paper aims to understand how India’s air connectivity with different countries and geographical regions has been impacted by the pandemic. Through the use of maps, charts and statistical techniques, the paper looks at the changes in the regional structure of India’s international air passenger network along with an overview of the pandemic’s impact on the magnitude of air passenger movement between India and other countries.
Mots clés : COVID-19 pandemic|international air travel|India|regional structure
A105462SC