Airports are getting quieter, so is anyone still flying?
Even in a global COVID-19 crisis, some people are still flying, but their numbers are shrinking. Pittsburgh-area travelers who recently returned home report that travel restrictions due to the pandemic have cut short everything from a sabbatical in Spain to vacations in Mexico and Florida and a cruise around Australia and New Zealand.
Business travel has taken the biggest hit, according to Von Campanella, general sales manager at Delta Airlines in Pittsburgh.
“Many businesses have asked their employees to refrain from traveling by air for the next several weeks,” Mr. Campanella said.
Meanwhile, most major airlines have reduced their schedules as demand has plummeted. Delta has cut 70% of its flights, most of them international, according to Forbes magazine. Mr. Campanella said the carrier will re-evaluate its schedules and travel policies in April.
Earlier this week, Southwest Airlines said it will cut service nearly 40% systemwide, canceling roughly 1,500 of its nearly 4,000 daily flights. And American Airlines has begun parking airplanes at Pittsburgh International Airport to wait out the crisis.
Airlines will likely also have to revisit sponsorships, according to Conrad Wiacek, head of analysis and consulting for Sportcal, a GlobalData company. Delta signed up as the official carrier of the summer 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles at a cost of $400 million. Mr. Wiacek said airlines have committed over $2.2 billion in those types of agreements after 2021.
“Any sponsorship agreements will likely be under threat as marketing spend is diverted elsewhere,” he said in a news release.
As infections from the new coronavirus mount, some airports have closed entirely.
Pittsburgh International Airport remains open, but gates and baggage claim areas are eerily quiet. Wait times for Transportation Security Administration screening were about 15 minutes a week ago and zero last week, according to recent travelers.
So who are the people who continue to fly? Among them are those caught far from home as the pandemic ramped up.
The Rev. Randy Bush of East Liberty Presbyterian Church and his wife, Beth, were on a twomonth sabbatical in Barcelona, Spain, when they started getting
texts from friends and family saying they had to get home. Their son, Ian, a junior at Edinboro University, had joined them when his spring break started March 8.
“The plan was to stay until March 31st, but that changed,” Rev. Bush said.
Their son had a return ticket for March 15, and they decided to fly home with him.
It cost $4,800 to change their tickets on British Airways. Then they were told they could not fly directly to Pittsburgh because it was not one of 13 approved airports for U.S. re-entry.
The Bushes spent two hours in front of a ticket agent in Barcelona’s airport as she tried to get them to London. They finally got a flight to London’s Heathrow Airport and were boarding another for John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, N.Y., when things got dicey.
“A red light flashes on their computer when we showed our boarding passes, and they pulled us aside,” Rev. Bush said.
A man told them that U.S. Homeland Security had flagged them, but a British Airways customer service representative called and clarified things.
Then the family ran to catch their flight. “It was about two-thirds full, and we got on huffing and puffing,” Rev. Bush said.
The family has nearly completed their 14-day selfquarantine. “It’s great to be home,” Rev. Bush said.
Pandemic fears were building March 14 when Will Kabazie, 18, a freshman at Allegheny College, and his girlfriend, Mallory Collins, of North Huntingdon, flew out to spend their spring break in California and Mexico.
“At that point, there was nothing officially said from the governor, but people were starting to get worried,” Mr. Kabazie recalled. “On the flight to Los Angeles, the plane was probably half-filled and that was a little unsettling.”
When they landed in Los Angeles, his cousins picked them up and they all drove to Mexico, where they spent the weekend.
“Mexico wasn’t very scary, but the airports — everyone would like turn and move away anytime anyone coughed or sneezed,” Mr. Kabazie said.
They had planned to return to stay in Los Angeles with his cousin but ended up cutting the vacation short by a week. There were only 10 passengers on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Chicago, he said. “Both directions there were tons of people wearing masks but not the kind that can really do anything.”
Mr. Kabazie quarantined himself when he got home. “I don’t know if it was worth traveling 12 hours in both directions for three days,” he said.
Olivia Senan left March 14 to meet her parents, Diana and Dr. Push Senan, of Fox Chapel, and her boyfriend, Riley Wallace, in Punta de Mita, Mexico. Both Olivia Senan and Mr. Wallace are freshmen at Colorado State University.
“I flew by myself from Colorado to meet them, and it was fine going down,” Ms. Senan said. “It wasn’t a big deal yet, but that changed.”
Five days into the vacation, Ms. Senan started getting emails reporting rumors that the borders would be closed and they wouldn’t be able to get back.
“We tried to fly a day early but ended up leaving when we planned” on March 21. She and Mr. Wallace flew back to Denver, and her parents flew back to Pittsburgh.
“Flying back to the airport was insane — extremely crowded, and everyone was trying to get out,” Ms. Senan recalled. “Lines were hours long, and it was just actual chaos. Also, the security checkpoints in Mexico were basically nonexistent because they were just moving us through.”
Mr. Wallace, who is from Seattle, ended up flying back to Pittsburgh with them. He and the Senans arrived here on March 23 and have started their two-week quarantine.
Donald and Marilyn Jenkins, of Mount Washington, got back from Fort Pierce, Fla., early this week. Their trip involved a cruise and flights from Orlando, Fla., to San Francisco to Sydney, where they met Silversea Silver Muse on March 2 for a 14-day cruise around Australia and New Zealand.
“When we left, corona was kind of in the news, but it wasn’t a big deal,” Mr. Jenkins said.
That changed when they boarded the cruise ship.
“They were asking a lot of questions about where you were coming from and taking your temperature,” he said.
“People started jumping ship — not literally, but they were leaving the cruise at ports,” Mr. Jenkins said.
At one point, the Silver Muse was not going to be allowed to dock, but the captain worked that out. The couple decided to stay the course.
When the cruise ended in Auckland, New Zealand, the ship went no further.
“We considered going straight to Pittsburgh from Auckland but decided to stick with the original plan and fly to Orlando since we had the car parked in the long-term lot at the airport,” Mr. Jenkins said.
They arrived in Orlando on March 18 and drove to their place in Fort Pierce. “We spent the night and decided to drive home to Pittsburgh to be near our children and grandchildren,” he said.
They thought the roads would be empty because they left early in the morning.
“It was a mass exodus coming out of Florida. [Interstate] 95 was jammed, but we drove straight through in 15 hours — an hour better than usual,” Mr. Jenkins said.
The couple wore latex gloves when pumping gas and using the restrooms. They packed all their own food and stayed away from people in and around the bathrooms, he said.
“We basically started our quarantine in the Audi,” Mr. Jenkins joked. “If you want some space, just tell people you were on a cruise and a plane.”