Vicenza wrote:To any sensible person 'commercial reality' should play very little, to no, part when dealing with a worldwide pandemic. As seems usual nowadays, too many businesses are only concerned with their own profits, and nothing else. Going forward in any major situation, businesses can/will adapt and if they can't/won't and go under, then too bad because it is a given that others will arrive to replace them.
EIBusiness is correct. Aviation serves many more interests than paying the staff that are directly employed within it. Ireland's tourism sector to name one relies very heavily on inbound air traffic, without which that sector of the economy will collapse. Domestic tourism is not enough to sustain many businesses in the tourism industry here and being an island nation, Ireland relies even moreso on aviation than other continental European countries, for example, which have assess to realistic alternative international travel methods via road and rail.
It is not feasible to keep the aviation/tourism sector of the economy, which employs hundreds of thousands of people (directly and indirectly), closed for the foreseeable future. Many public health experts have already commented on the need for all sectors of the economy to reopen to some extent. In order for people to be able to look after themselves (i.e. buy food, pay rent, feed their families), stay healthy and be able to pay for healthcare, they need to be earning money. Letting these businesses (from airlines to B&Bs) go bust will result in another pandemic - of unemployment - which means less income for the Government, more outgoings on social welfare and less money to spend on the health service.
Nobody disagrees that striking a safe balance is extremely difficult. But the way it is now with only a fraction of normal activity ongoing in aviation cannot be sustained, Covid or no Covid.
