Airport boardings down 'drastically' due to coronavirus

Airports across the country — and around the world — are feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as airlines cancel thousands of flights and millions of would-be passengers cancel travel plans.

The impact is not just at the nation’s busiest airports in places such as Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles, but also at smaller terminals such as the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport where Katrina Amos, the airport manager, has seen passenger boardings drop to a fraction of what they were a few weeks ago.

“We’ve definitely been affected,” Amos said, “and its pretty much the same all over the country.”

The Cape Girardeau airport is serviced by Sky West Airlines, doing business as United Express, and has 12 flights a week to and from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

On Thursday the airline announced several adjustments to the arrival and departure times for those flights during April.

“This is due to everything going on with COVID-19,” Amos said, adding “the schedule is expected to return to normal in May.”

In 2019, an average of 225 passengers boarded United Express flights out of Cape Girardeau and the airport exceeded 10,000 boardings — 11,777 to be exact — for the first time in more than 20 years.

But last week, as more and more people canceled travel plans and the list of “no fly” destinations around the world grew longer, there were only 40 boardings, an average of just over three passengers per flight.

“Boardings have decreased drastically the last couple of weeks,” she said.

Passenger activity has diminished even more this week.

“We had seven (people) fly out Tuesday and zero passengers today,” she said Wednesday.

“We had a surge in numbers right before the travel bans started going into effect,” Amos reported. “It was mostly students and some business travelers, as well. Last week was the first time we saw our numbers that low.”

Although Sky West’s jets have had more empty seats than passengers lately, Amos said there are no plans to eliminate flights because the route between Cape Girardeau and Chicago has been designated as an “essential air service” and Sky West receives an annual federal subsidy of nearly $3.4 million to provide the service.

“Sky West is determined to fly,” she said. “They know its important to try to keep the service going.”

The airport manager said she’s concerned, however, that if boardings out of Cape Girardeau don’t rebound to pre-coronvirus levels, there will be no possibility of reaching the 10,000 boarding plateau in 2020. That’s important because airports that surpass the 10,000 mark are eligible for substantially more federal funding than those that don’t.

In the past, Cape Girardeau’s airport received $150,000 in federal funding, but by achieving 10,000 boardings, it qualified for an additional $850,000 of annual funding, which the city plans to apply toward a new control tower and terminal.

The $2 trillion federal stimulus bill is designed to provide cash relief to the American economy. A portion of that will reportedly be earmarked for the airline industry and Amos hopes some of those dollars will find their way to the Cape Girardeau airport.

“We need to wait and find out how they’re going to distribute the funds,” she said. “But with us hitting 10,000 boardings last year, that put us in a ‘primary airport’ status, which, I believe, will make us eligible for a significant amount of funds.”

In addition to its impact on commercial flights, the COVID-19 outbreak has also affected private aviation at the airport, as well.

“We’ve had to reduce our hours as an FBO (fixed base operator), but the airport staff is making sure we’re able to operate across the board from general aviation to commercial flights.”

The last time the aviation industry was impacted by an event of this magnitude was in the days immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when all air travel in the United States was suspended.

“I was in college then, but I remember it being an uncertain time,” Amos said. “I feel a little bit of that now as we go through this, but I also feel optimistic. We’ve been through worse times and, while this is certainly unprecedented, I look forward to pushing through and coming out stronger.”

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