Comparing the performance of Iranian airlines in domestic flights in the years exposed to the Corona virus and before them

With the start of the corona virus from the city of Wuhan in China and its spread among other nations, a gray era began in the world. This crisis permeated all businesses and industries, including the airline industry. After the announcement of the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 21, 2020 regarding the epidemic of this virus, physical distancing was recognized as the best way to deal with the spread of this disease. Hereupon, the demand for transportation decreased to a significant amount and the airline companies all over the world entered an economic recession. An analysis published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) states that the crisis has reduced revenue generated from passengers for the world's airlines by 55% (equivalent to $314 billion) in the year of the outbreak. Similar surveys in other countries have also shown a decrease in travel demand and by examining various companies, researchers have recognized methods such as using technologies to reduce the need for physical contact in airports, the policy of removing the middle seat, etc., to be effective. They have also encouraged the governments to support the airline industries. In this article, the performance of Iranian airlines in domestic flights in the years 2016 to 2021 is examined and using the extracted results, a comparison between the years including covid-19 and other years is made. Due to the homogenization of the passenger, cargo and mail variables for comparison, indicators have been defined by dividing each variable by the number of flights. The result of this comparison shows a decrease of more than 20% in the passenger index from 2019 to 2020 and an increasing trend in cargo and mail indexes in these years, which can be due to people's eagerness for online shopping in this era compared to in-person shopping.