GoAir, the budget airline controlled by the Wadia group, on Tuesday suspended all international flights for a month and asked some of its employees to go on short-term leave without pay because of the coronavirus impact.

The airline has close to 5,500 employees on its rolls. A spokesperson from GoAir said the decision to send some of its employees on short-term leave would largely affect pilots and crew operating international flights.

The suspension of international flights might affect 25-30 per cent of its employees, sources said. The airline spokesperson said the number was “exaggerated”, adding that only a very small number of employees would be affected. The airline flies to at least nine international destinations.

“The sharp decline in air travel that we are currently experiencing is unprecedented. GoAir is forced to take certain measures — we are temporarily suspending all our international operations, starting March 17, 2020, until April 15, 2020.

“GoAir has also initiated a short-term and temporary rotational leave without pay programme that will not only help the company counter the short-term reduction in capacity but will also ensure that a cross-section of our employees stay away from the workplace to ensure business continuity,” the no-frills airline said in a statement.

The coronavirus scare has hit the global aviation industry the hardest.

“We have tried to put our customers at ease by offering them a waiver on change fees so that they can be confident about booking their travel today while maintaining full flexibility in the future. Despite these safeguards, the sharp decline in air travel that we are currently experiencing is unprecedented,” the Go Air statement said.

Last month, Vistara cancelled over 50 flights to Bangkok and Singapore in response to the coronavirus scare. Air India also cut back on its flights to Singapore.

The turbulence in the aviation industry comes at a time when international crude prices have tumbled to their lowest levels since early 2016. Aviation turbine fuel is the largest cost component for airlines.

Brent crude oil futures fell 1.06 per cent to $ 29.73 per barrel on Tuesday.

In a recent note, Icra said that passenger traffic growth at Indian airports have already been fairly subdued at 1.7 per cent for the first 10 months during this financial year, compared to the same period last year, and this is sharply lower than the 12 per cent growth in 2018-19.