The Effect of COVID-19 on Airline Practitioners in the Philippines

While the tourism industry contributes to the Philippine economy, the world was struck by COVID-19 that rapidly spread across the globe. Businesses that require personal contact were halted. Researchers are investigating how COVID-19 affects airline employees on a greater level. Respondents were 125 airline practitioners. A self-made questionnaire was used and obtained 0.911 on reliability test (Cronbach Alpha). For data gathering results, respondents agree that pandemic brought effects to them and their company in terms of products and service, operations, financial, employee relations, and customer relations. Moreover, there is a significant difference when respondents were the group to profile variables (department) in terms of financial, economic, employee, and customer relation. Product and service and customer relations were found to be significant when respondents were grouped to profile variables (job status). Researchers came up with a proposed action plan on how to mitigate the effects on airline practitioners. Researchers suggest that airline companies may consider keeping the work of employees whose job status is more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19, an effective marketing strategy can help revive the tourism industry and the government may provide jobs and financial assistance for retrenched employees so that they can have a source of income.

Keywords – Airline business, airline practitioners, COVID-19, and tourism industry.