In a strange twist, food delivery is taking off when aviation is collapsing. Covid-19 is wiping out one loss-making industry and boosting another. Food delivery through apps such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eats has risen 71% in 1H2020. In Singapore, Foodpanda and GrabFood have done more business in 1H2020 than in the whole of 2019. Food delivery apps were also the most downloaded in Singapore during the “circuit breaker” period.
Tony Jannus was an American pilot who flew the world’s first commercial airline flight. It was between St Petersburg and Tampa in the US state of Florida in 1914. He instantly became a celebrity. Pilots were then feted like astronauts. The dashing Jannus had a vast female following.
But his name will ring long for creating a destructive industry. Commercial flight environmental damage is alarming. Its capital destruction is even worse. In the last 106 years, the airline industry has never made money. Covid-19 may wipe out the airline industry. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the aviation industry will lose US$84 billion ($115.4 trillion) this year.
