Bradley sees passengers return
Passenger traffic at Connecticut’s main airport rose 17 percent year over year in the first half of 2021, according to new data — a sign of the aviation industry’s recovery from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the virus’ recent resurgence looms as a concern.
About 1.74 million travelers passed through Windsor Locksbased Bradley International Airport from January through June, compared with 1.48 million in the same period in 2020, according to data from the Connecticut Airport Authority, which owns and operates Bradley. On a month-overmonth basis, the turnout at Bradley has increased for five-straight months — rising from 150,842 in January to 450,422 in June — although it is still running below the approximately 500,000 passengers who passed through the airport in February 2020.
“The increase in traffic has been primarily fueled by leisure travelers,” said Alisa Sisic, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Airport Authority. “For recovery to continue in the months ahead, we will need to see the return of business travelers.”
Tweed-New Haven Airport does not publicly disclose passenger totals, but officials there cited “load factor,” which refers to the percentage of a plane that is full. Tweed flights have been averaging a 77 percent load factor so far in August, compared with 74 percent in July, 73 percent in June, 65 percent in May and 42 percent in April, according to Sean Scanlon, the airport’s executive director.
“Our (load factor) numbers have been rising since the spring when the (COVID-19) vaccine become widely available and people’s confidence increased,” said Scanlon, who also serves as a state representative for Branford and Guilford. “Compare that to a year ago in the spring when we were in the single and low double digits.”
Despite the upheaval from the pandemic, Bradley and Tweed have been expanding their service. In June, Bradley started a nonstop JetBlue route to Miami. In May, the new Breeze Airways said it would launch this summer four nonstop routes connecting Bradley with Charleston, S.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Norfolk, Va.; and Pittsburgh. Also in May, Sun Country Airlines committed to starting nonstop service between Bradley and Minneapolis.
At Tweed, the new Avelo Air
lines is scheduled to begin service Nov. 3 to the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa.
Earlier this year, Tweed officials announced expansion plans that include a new terminal and a longer runway.
Dealing with the delta variant
The precipitous spread of the delta variant of COVID-19, however, has complicated the outlook for the travel industry.
As a result of the variant’s contagion, COVID-19 cases have spiked in recent weeks. Connecticut had 380 COVID-19-related hospitalizations as of Thursday, compared with a low of 25 as of July 9. The state recorded a peak of 1,972 COVID-19 hospitalizations on April 22, 2020.
“We are closely monitoring the delta variant and its impact on the travel landscape,” Sisic said.
Unvaccinated individuals have accounted for the vast majority of COVID-19related hospitalizations and deaths in recent months, while breakthrough cases leading to severe illness in vaccinated people have been rare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received reports from 49 states and territories of 9,716
patients who were vaccinated against COVID-19, but contracted breakthrough infections that resulted in hospitalizations or death.
As of Aug. 16, more than 168 million people in the U.S. had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC. In the past week, Connecticut’s total number of doses administered for every 100,000 people ranked No. 3 among the states, according to the CDC.
“We have one of the highest rates in the country and I think most people in Connecticut feel comfortable traveling knowing that breakthrough cases are still pretty rare,” Scanlon said. “Combine that with that fact that people are desperate to travel again and the fact that airplanes have proven to be pretty safe given the universal mask mandate and good air filtration and I think you see why our numbers climb.”
The CDC said that fully vaccinated individuals can travel safely within the U.S.
Travel outside the U.S. entails more regulations. Passengers need to undergo COVID-19 testing before they return to the U.S., and then show negative results to airlines, the CDC said. People should not travel internationally unless they are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.