TRAVEL INDUSTRY

Stephen Pimpo talks about the Golden Triangle Regional Airport and how they are doing with the pandemic.

The us just had its busiest week for air travel since the start of the pandemic.

On sunday alone, the tsa screened 1 million passengers across the country.

Wcbi reporter stephen pimpo checked in with the golden triangle regional airport to see how they are doing during the pandemic.

He joins us in studio with the story.

Executive director mike hainsey says they are getting around 60 passengers a day since they increased to three flights a day in october.

However...he says the air port has a long way to go to get back to normal.

"they're getting the message that they can travel safely."

Slowly but surely...the golden triangle regional airport is doing it's best to keep pushing forward seven months into the pandemic.

"initially when this started, we were getting maybe 8-10 passengers a day and now, with 25 a flight, we're seeing a decent number of people coming back."

Su: last month the airport got just 32% of the passengers they had at this time last year.

While those numbers are consistent with other airports across the country...executiv e director mike hainsey says the airport is still missing most of it's most reliable demographic.

"without the business travelers in our market, they're about 80 percent of our customers.

So until they start traveling, we'll stay where we are now."

The airport and carrier delta airlines are taking every safety precaution...the reasons those passengers are staying away are out of their hands.

"a business traveler has to be sure that the ride to the hotel, the hotel, the restaurants are all following the covid protocols or their people may be at risk."

Fortunately...the airport has been able to balance that out with the recent up-tick in leasure travel.

"the air fairs have dropped significantly, depending on where you are going and we're seeing a lot of people are traveling now for vacations."

Travel nurse sarah casey is flying out to see family on the east coast.

"it's a little scary at times but i feel pretty comfortable with it.

All the airports that i've been in during my traveling, i've felt safe in."

While the airport itself remains financially stable, the drop in business travelers has hurt the rest of the golden triangle community.

"on our restaurants, on our service industries, on our hotels, anything that has anything to do with travel, those industries have really been hit hard."

Hainsey did say the airport will get another boost in january when delta opens up the middle seat for passengers.

Stinger