Airline industry had a very rosy outlook when the year 2020 started. Many airline operators were planning to expand their fleet many-fold owing to the ever increasing number of air travellers. The proliferation of ‘novel corona virus (COVID-19)’ on a global scale changed all that. By the end of March 2020, most of the airlines were looking at a bleak future with many of them going bankrupt. Traditionally, an epidemic outbreak in any country affects the transnational travel industry since the vehicles for travel whether ships or aircrafts inadvertently become the carriers of these diseases and transmit them globally. Many local disease outbreaks are transmitted to many countries through travellers. This phenomenon has been happening for a long period of time since before the Spanish flu outbreak. Presently, most of the countries ban air travel first, whenever there is disease outbreak. When the disease goes to pandemic proportions this adversely affects the airline industry. The present pandemic is likely to permanently change the airline industry as people around the world are shifting to alternative technology to get connected. This case attempts to look at the present situation and the likely future of the airline industry in the light of the present pandemic.