It’s no secret that air travel has been impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
At Yeager Airport, travel is picking back up and we are almost back at pre-pandemic levels.
According to the latest Longwoods International tracking study of American travels, the majority of American travels have some level of vaccination with 57% fully vaccinated. That number is up from March and April.
George Zimmerman with Longwoods International believes travel attitudes go hand-in-hand with the state of the pandemic.
“The travel industry will not fully recover until it’s generally accepted we have beat the virus,” said Zimmerman.
According to Longwoods International data, 30% of people are still planning on traveling between October and December, even with the spread of the Delta Variant. However, the same data shows 15% have postponed travel plans to 2022. Unlike during past pandemic surges, it appears not that many Americans are dropping their vacation plans entirely.
In regard to the possibility of a mandated vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Sunday said, “We have not yet gotten to the point of requiring vaccinations on domestic flights, but everything is on the table.
When it comes to international travel, 54% support vaccination requirements or proof of immunity for all international travelers coming into the United States.
“When it was terrible at the beginning, obviously travel was way down. Then the vaccines came and all of a sudden there was optimism. When people got vaccinated things started to pick back up. We were rolling around until June and July and that’s when the Delta variant started taking a hold of the U.S., the numbers started to reverse and daily cases were going up, hospitalizations were up and once that happened the travel’s attitude started to fall.”
The chart below shows passengers who have crossed Transportation Security Administration airport security checkpoints each day since March 2020.
Passengers who have crossed Transportation Security Administration airport security checkpoints each day since March 2020.
Of course, there are safe ways to travel. Airlines and airports are still under a federal mask mandate. Daily cleanings are still being done on and off the planes.
During the pandemic, CRW has continued to increase cleaning efforts, especially in high point touch areas. Air ducts have been cleaned, UV-C lights in vents have been installed throughout the airport, as well as putting in new MERV filters. To add those efforts, CRW is now an ACI Health Accredited Airport.
