Fewer travelers flying for holiday
Warnings from public health officials to avoid holiday travel to stem the coronavirus pandemic seem to be working in the Bay Area if short lines Tuesday in Terminal 2 at Oakland International Airport, above, are an indication. Across the Bay, San Francisco International Airport reports that December passenger traffic is down 80% compared to 2019. Across the country, air travel appears to be increasing in step with the holiday season — but is nowhere close to prepandemic levels.
For the past several weeks, even before Thanksgiving, public health officials have pleaded with Americans to avoid traveling this holiday season, hoping to mitigate the explosive growth of coronavirus infections brought on by mingling households.
If the lines at the Oakland International Airport on Tuesday morning — three days before Christmas — were any indication, people listened.
The airport’s Terminal 1 was desolate just after 9 a. m. As airport announcements echoed through the nearly empty terminal, only about a dozen people lined up at the security checkpoint.
The scene at Terminal 2 was a bit more lively — but still not as crowded as one might expect at the height of the holiday travel season, in what might be a hopeful sign of the Bay Area’s acquiescence to public health directives.
Across the bay, the situation was similar at San Francisco International Airport, which reported a 75% drop in Thanksgiving passenger
“Passenger traffic is down 80% compared to the same time in 2019, suggesting that current stayathome orders and travel advisories are being adhered to.” Doug Yakel, SFO spokesman
traffic over the same time last year.
In December, “passenger traffic is down 80% compared to the same time in 2019, suggesting that current stayathome orders and travel advisories are being adhered to by more wouldbe travelers,” SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said.
Officials at Oakland’s airport did not respond Tuesday to questions about their passenger traffic this year.
Across the country, air travel appears to be increasing in step with the holiday season — but nowhere close to ordinary levels. Public health officials have always warned against unnecessary travel during the pandemic, but news out of the United Kingdom of a new, more contagious coronavirus mutation has reignited those concerns.
More than 1 million people traveled through TSA checkpoints for three days in a row — last Friday, Saturday and Sunday — according to figures posted by the agency. That’s the longest consecutive streak of days with more than 1 million passengers since March.
But that represents less than half of the passenger traffic seen last year, when more than 2 million people across the country flew every day from midto late December.
In Oakland, several people preparing to check in to their flights
said they felt comforted by airlines’ claims that aerosols can be filtered out in a plane’s air system.
“Probably the air is safer to breathe on a plane than it is anywhere else,” Margaret Martin said as she prepared to walk into the terminal. Martin said she has traveled several times since August for business and pleasure. Each time, she said she makes sure to pick a short flight.
Martin was one of several people who said Tuesday that they had already traveled during the pandemic, and felt safe doing so.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appears to agree that the virus may not spread easily on planes.
“Most viruses and other germs do not spread easily on flights because of how the air circulates and is filtered on airplanes,” the agency said.
But the CDC still recommends against traveling during the pandemic.
“Air travel requires spending time in security lines and airport terminals, which can bring you in close contact with other people and frequently touched surfaces.”
All of that, the CDC said, can increase your risk of exposure to the virus.
Earlier this month, a resurgence in cases and strains on the hospital system’s intensive care unit capacity triggered a stayathome order for the Bay Area. Under the order, nonessential travel, including for vacations and holidays, was discouraged — but not banned. Anybody coming back into California from out of state, including state residents, is recommended to quarantine across the state.
Tenday quarantines
are mandated for people returning to San Francisco and Santa Clara counties.
At Oakland’s Terminal 2, checkin kiosks were spaced apart. Nearly every person in the terminal wore a mask, and some wore a combination of masks and face shields.
Cully Anderson, who was flying to Phoenix for the holidays with his wife, Julie, said he was not concerned about the threat of the virus.
“I’m 80 years old and already recovered from my bout with COVID,” he said. “I’m ready to go ( on vacation).”
Raj Scott expressed some pandemic skepticism as he walked into the terminal.
“I may have a different view on this whole COVID thing than a lot of people do,” he said from behind the face covering he begrudgingly wore.
“I have to comply,” he said. “To have ( a mask) with me everywhere — it’s odd. And ( the masks) are making people act odd.”
Standing just outside of the terminal’s front door, Kyle Scott said he wasn’t worried about the potential of getting the virus — he said that he felt like flying on planes “is safer than going to the grocery store.”
He is worried, though, about the potential of giving the virus to somebody else.
“This is a highrisk activity,” he said. “I just don’t want to give it to anyone.”