Southern California airports — virtual ghost towns for more than three months due to stay-at-home orders sparked by the novel coronavirus pandemic — are slowly coming back to life, as airlines double and in some cases, triple the number of departures.
While the climb from the more-than-90% drop is slow, airlines are building on consumer confidence, adding flights and boosting revenue as the industry goes after summer leisure travelers buoyed by the reopening of restaurants, hotels and national parks.
Airlines adding flights
The numbers tell the story:
• LAX will see airline flights triple in July and August, spokesperson Heath Montgomery said Thursday, June 11.
• John Wayne Airport in Orange County expects a steady increase in flights over the summer, with some carriers adding new destinations, spokesperson Deanne Thompson said Thursday.
• In the Inland Empire, Ontario International Airport‘s June passenger count is about 33% of the volume in June 2019, up from 7% in April’s year-over-year comparison, said Mark Thorpe, ONT executive director. Delta Airlines and JetBlue will resume service in July.
“This is true: They (airlines) are ramping up from the lowest point,” said Brett Snyder, a Long Beach resident who writes a blog on the airline industry called crankyflier.com. “It is choppy at this point but it is absolutely growing from where it was.”
American Airlines will move the needle slightly, going to 55% scheduling capacity in July, as compared to the same month last year, Snyder said. United Airlines will climb to a modest 30%.
Sometimes, mid-level airports are seeing more flight cancellations, he said.
Delta Airlines pulled all its flights from Hollywood Burbank Airport and Long Beach Airport until at least September, Snyder said.
At Burbank, JetBlue also stopped service when the pandemic began, said Frank Miller, airport executive director. He said JetBlue service to Boston and New York City may resume by the end of summer.
“Nationally we are seeing more people returning to flying,” Miller said Thursday.
The Transportation Security Administration reported Thursday that 502,209 people had passed through security checkpoints nationwide, the first time the traveler count had surpassed a half-million since March 21. One year ago, 2.7 million travelers were screened at TSA checkpoints.
“We are expecting capacity and number of flights to triple what they are now, from July into August,” Montgomery said of LAX. But airline schedules could change, he added.
Southwest Airlines is the most bullish and has become the air carrier to watch, Snyder said. By the middle of December the airline will be back even with last year, according to Southwest.
At Burbank, where Southwest dominates in flights and passengers, the airline will jump from 15 flights a day currently to 28 flights a day in July, Miller said.
Ontario airport also will benefit from an aggressive Southwest ramp-up. Southwest is flying 25 departures a day, up from 10 in May, said Jesse Perez, station manager for Southwest at ONT.
The airline is planning to increase departures from ONT in August to 43 flights per day, which would be slightly higher than in October 2019, Perez said. The airline is adding a new flight to Houston in November.
“We have confidence in our customers coming back,” Perez said.
Virus protection efforts
To gain trust, airports are doubling sanitizing efforts. ONT is using virus-zapping tools on counters, chairs and seats. TSA bins have germ-repellent features and the agency is allowing up to 12 ounces of hand sanitizer per person in carry-on bags. LAX is limiting the number of people in elevators and spacing passengers at escalators.
Masks or some kind of face-covering are required at all local airports. While most airlines do the same, there’s no enforcement mechanism without government oversight, Snyder said.
“Even for those airlines requiring masks, it is only airline policy,” Snyder said. “Let’s say someone takes their mask off and refuses to put it back on; there is nothing you can do about that.”
Southwest Airlines will not sell the middle seat through July 31. Frontier Airlines is presently blocking the sale of middle seats, walking back a $39 fee to sit next to a vacant seat after Congress said the airline was profiting off the coronavirus pandemic.
Frontier is taking passengers’ temperatures before they board an airplane.
Air circulating inside the cabins passes through air-cleaning filters, according to airline websites and officials. Snyder said the air is constantly being filtered for viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the scientific name of the virus strain that causes COVID-19.
“The risk appears to be fairly low for people traveling by air. It is a measured risk,” Snyder said, adding he believes the risk is lower than going into a sit-down restaurant.
These measures, and social distancing requirements such as boarding queues that space passengers 6 feet apart, came about when pictures of crowded airplanes began surfacing on social media in May.
“The reality here is you will not be able to social distance if you are flying: You just never will have 6 feet distance between you and someone else,” Snyder concluded.
When will airlines recover?
The airline industry often compares the service drop from COVID-19 to other crises, such as after 9/11 and during the 2008-09 Great Recession.
On Wednesday, June 9, Bloomberg News reported that the International Air Transport Association estimated air carriers “will lose a combined $84 billion this year and almost $16 billion in 2021.” This is more than three times the losses sustained during the Great Recession.
Some airline watchdogs say it will take close to a decade for airlines to get back to pre-pandemic levels. Others say recovery will be shorter. Ontario’s Thorpe said domestic air travel could come back to pre-pandemic levels in less than two years. International travel will take three years, he said.
Snyder predicts a return to 2019 levels in three to five years. “No one knows for sure,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Source: Orange County Register
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