When Lisa Lemasters boarded the 2:40 p.m. Delta Airlines flight from Golden Triangle Regional Airport to Atlanta Tuesday afternoon, she was one of only four passengers on the plane.
The West Virginia resident bought a ticket last week to fly from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — the nearest airport to her home — to Mississippi for a funeral. She said she wouldn’t have flown for any other reason right now, with COVID-19 coronavirus spreading through the country and causing would-be spring breakers and business travelers to cancel trips and hunker down in their homes to help curb the spread of the virus.
“They had only one person per row on the plane,” she said of the trip from Pittsburgh. “… There’s just minimal people everywhere.”
That includes GTR, which is down to two flights per day — it’s normally four — and fewer than 10 passengers, said Executive Director Mike Hainsey.
“If you were to go there now, you’d see a very empty terminal,” he said. “It’s very quiet there.”
GTR is not alone. Nationwide, passenger travel on airlines has decreased as states increasingly adopt shelter in place procedures.
“Statistically I can tell you over this past week, (Transportation Security Administration) has screened only 5 percent of the number of people that they normally do this time of year,” Hainsey said. “It’s down everywhere.”
No one is flying for either business or pleasure, he said, though they are seeing some people still returning from spring break. Mostly, the few passengers who do book tickets are flying to visit family, particularly elderly relatives considered more at risk for catching the virus.
Airline ticket prices are lower too. Lemasters said her one-trip ticket was less than $250, and Hainsey said when he booked a flight recently for a trip in August, prices were about $200 less than they had been when he’d looked before the coronavirus crisis began.
The low number of passengers is also affecting the handful of businesses at the airport, namely the car rental services.
“Most of the people who would usually come in are not coming in anymore,” said Charles Foster, assistant manager for Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Starkville, who says he spends a good bit of time manning the company’s desk at the airport. “… We’ve shut down the Columbus store, so I’m getting like insurance replacements and stuff like that, so our business is kind of rolling. But it’s down across the board.”
Foster said Enterprise has a fleet of 100 cars, and usually about 85 of them stay rented. Right now, there are 15 out for rent.
Certainly, he said, he’s not seeing the airport traffic he typically sees.
“It’s strange. I’m hoping it’s going to come back quickly, but it’s kind of scary,” he said. “I kind of feel the same way everybody else does right now, just kind of on edge, just kind of waiting for the next shoe to drop. Because it’s coming, I’m sure.”
Not taking risks
Hainsey pointed out there is significantly more going on at the airport than passenger flights.
“The airport is open because airlines are only part of what we do,” he said. “We’ve got a medical helicopter that flies in and out of there. We still are getting some general aviation flying in and out. The military’s still flying. So the airport itself is open, but commercial service is greatly, greatly reduced.”
He said while the decline in commercial service will certainly affect the airport’s revenue, he’s not too worried, partly because the airport has other ways to make money through hangar rental space and similar services, and because GTR had a strong previous fiscal year.
“Of course it’s going to impact us because a large part of the revenue for airports comes from the trickle down from commercial travel, the rental cars, the parking lot, things like that,” Hainsey said. “… But also we budget on a fiscal year and this is going to affect two to three months out of that year. We had a very good fiscal year this past year because the Air Force was deployed out of our place and things like that. So financially, we’re in good shape.”
He said the airport has about a year’s worth of reserve funds and could receive up to $190,000 in federal money meant to aid airports during the economic downturn.
“We expect that we won’t have any problems, assuming this doesn’t last past the next few months,” Hainsey said.
That’s allowed the airport’s board to keep all employees and provide sick leave for part-time workers. Since Gov. Tate Reeves issued a shelter in place order in Mississippi last week, the airport is down to essential employees, including firefighters and maintenance. He and Deputy Director Matt Dowell are alternating days working from home. He added Delta and TSA are also on minimal staff.
GTR’s maintenance and janitorial staff are particularly important right now as they are the ones keeping the airport sanitized, Hainsey said.
“Our janitorial staff after every flight wipes down any touched areas … from bathrooms to handrails to elevator buttons to whatever,” he said. “Anywhere a passenger can touch gets wiped down after every flight. It’s done constantly, with the employees there too. … You clean up after one flight and it’s time for the next.”
Lemasters said she’s glad airports are taking those kinds of precautions — when she was flying from Pittsburgh, flight attendants were handing out wipes and other disinfectants for passengers to use throughout the flight — and that it helped with her nerves somewhat.
“Nobody was taking a risk anywhere that I saw,” she said.
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