Impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the aviation industry: The case of Qatar Airways during the COVID-19 pandemic

The world economy, historically, has been challenged by many negative happenings such as terrorist attacks, diseases, economic crises, and these happenings have negatively affected many sectors across the globe. The aviation industry that has become one of the major contributors to the world economy, especially, after the second world war, has been dramatically affected by such happenings. For example, global crises that have happened after the 2000s such as September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the 2003 Iraq war, the SARS pandemic, and recently, the COVID-19 outbreak have had long-term effects on the aviation industry as well as other industries in the world. The main aim of this paper is to examine the influence of the COVID-19 outbreak on the aviation industry during the last two years and the strategies implemented to minimize the effects of this outbreak. Within the study, the impacts of some global crises on the aviation industry have been analyzed based on the secondary data and sectorial reports, and afterward, relevant case studies and SWOT analyses have been used to understand the strategies applied by Qatar Airways and might be useful towards the COVID-19 outbreak. Outcomes of this research propose significant hints for other entities within the aviation industry to diminish the influence of the pandemic. Keywords: Aviation; Crisis; COVID-19; Qatar Airways