Change to the Airline Industry with the onset of COVID-19
Dec. 3, 2020
Austin, TX – More than 1.17 million people were reported traveling through airport checkpoints by the Transportation Security Administration on Monday, Nov. 29, the highest since shutdowns began in early March across the country.
Compared to 2019, similarly the busiest travel day of that year at 2.88 million, there was about a 60% decrease in travelers. Although the numbers are expected to increase in the coming months, those in the industry say it will take a long time until the numbers reach what they were before the pandemic.
Different areas surrounding the flight industry tell a different story of what has changed since the onset of COVID-19. Corporate executives explain things differently than flight attendants or those stationed at the airport. Experienced travelers share their restlessness while infrequent fliers see the low prices as an opportunity. And those just about to enter the industry don’t know any different from how they are being taught currently.
On the Ground
As one of the busiest airports, Michelle Hinds, the managing director for customer care at American Airlines, said it was tough to see Dallas Fort Worth International Airport so empty at the beginning of the pandemic.
“You could see all the way down to one end of the terminal,” she said. “There were more employees at the airport than customers.”
DFW saw 6.37 million total passengers in Oct. 2019 but only 3.81 million in October of this year. Hinds said she is seeing the trend of travelers increasing as time goes on and hopes for it to continue.
“Once the vaccine is widely distributed and more and more people have access to it, I think it’s going to increase confidence in just people in general,” she said, “And not only for travel, but just being able to have that comfort level of doing things that you haven’t done in almost a year.”
American Airlines furloughed 19,000 employees on Oct. 1 with another 20,000 opting for an early out or long-term leave. About 8,000 of the furloughs were flight attendants. With so many gone, and scheduling based on seniority, many experienced flight attendants had to go back to flying on reserve: An on-call schedule during busy travel seasons in which flight attendants don’t have much flexibility in their hours and have to be at the airport ready to work after getting called in, even last minute. A flight attendant with a major airline with 36 years said she was lucky she did not have to go back on reserve, although some of her colleagues did.
“People are not happy being reserved,” she said. “They are not happy at all. Thirty-[six] years with the company and now put back on reserve.”
The experienced flight attendant attributed this move to the increase in travel due to the holiday season. Although she anticipates less travel in January.
On the contrary, Hinds expects more travel in the upcoming months. She said she’s confident that numbers will be close to normal by spring of next year.
“Will it be where we were back in 2019? Probably not,” Hinds said, “but I think we’ll be going in the right direction and rebuilding our volume of pendler travel.”
Many major airline companies, such as American, Southwest and Delta, among others, released a commitment or plan for extra sanitation and cleanliness. Although these companies assure passengers they will be safe, the CDC still cautions people against traveling, stating that it may “increase the chance of spreading and getting COVID-19.”
In the Air
Airplanes from different airlines, from all over the world lined up nose to tail, melting under the Phoenix sun. A “graveyard for planes,” pilot in training Sierra Villalobos, described.
Along with staff, American Airlines, and other companies, removed over 150 aircraft through retirement or by placing them in temporary storage, like the airport in Phoenix, Arizona that Villalobos visited.
“It’s just kind of sad that all these planes would be flying all the time, but it’s kind of all stopped,” she said. “You even see some of the maxes too, which is crazy to me. So that’s a really weird thing to see too.”
Villalobos is in the process of becoming a commercial airline pilot. Her training company was able to stay open throughout the pandemic, but she said some procedures changed. All her work was done at home except for major activities, such as flight simulations, ground lessons or actual flight routes. Villalobos enrolled in her training school in January 2020 and is expected to finish her flight ratings by the end of December. Even with increased precautions and cleaning procedures, she said that her training was quicker than what it would have been before the pandemic.
“They had to put in a lot of different safety measures, but because of that, we were able to fly a lot more often than we were in the beginning,” Villalobos said. “So it kind of actually worked out, but at the same time, there was always that chance of, “Oh, is it going to close down?””
With thousands of airline employees furloughed and companies experiencing a hiring freeze, it may seem odd that pilot training is still ongoing. However, there is an “age out” as a pilot meaning that you have to retire after the age of 65. Villialobos described that with many senior members and with aviation being a difficult occupation to “jump into,” training is still ongoing. Although, she said she is a little worried about life after the program.
“There is a sense of uncertainty, but at the same time, there is certainty because you just kind of hear different things from different people about when traveling is going to pick back up and how it looks for jobs because to be an airline pilot it really comes down to hours. You have to accumulate a certain number of hours in order to apply for the major commercial airline,” Villalobos said.
Travel has been on the rise since late October. However, Hinds said she’s seeing more non-seasoned travelers than experienced ones. Business travel has all but stopped with online video chatting being the primary meeting location. The low-ticket prices have attracted a different bracket of people, traveling primarily for leisure.
“Companies are not having their employees fly so we see more leisure travelers,” Hinds said. “We’re seeing a lot of people who never traveled before in an airplane; it’s their first time flying.”
For Tim Page, however, his trip to Belgrade, Serbia wasn’t a vacation, but a place to “sit out COVID-19.” Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who held a joint professorship at the University of Southern California from 2008 to 2020, said he tried for three months to get out of the country but wasn’t successful until mid-August. As a very experienced traveler, Page was not content in New York. With many places closed to tourism, especially from America, he said Serbia was the only place in Europe in which he could get there in a single overnight flight.
“I love to travel but this wasn’t the usual sort of travel. It was obvious to me from the beginning of last summer that Trump would not be up for the task and that we were screwing up the pandemic terribly and that I wanted to get out of New York,” Page said. “So I bought a ticket, got to the airport all masked up and I caught the plane, knowing I was taking a calculated risk.”
Serbia reports 234,027 COVID-19 cases as of Dec. 8, just a fraction of the 14.82 million cases reported by the U.S. Page said there is concern in Serbia, but contrary to the U.S, there is little hysteria surrounding the pandemic. People wear their masks, as suggested, without backlash. Page said he is comfortable in Belgrade and unsure when he will return to the U.S.
“I’ve been here for three months and will likely be here till summer at least,” Page said. “It is less expensive than living in the U.S. now that I’m here. Actually, considerably less expensive than New York, Washington D.C. or California, the places I’ve been for most of my career.”
Page’s trip could be described as more of a “stay” rather than a “visit.” This is his second longest unbroken stay in another country. Page said he’s stayed mostly in Belgrade, with a few short trips to other places in Serbia.
“At 66, I no longer have much interest in being a tourist and simply adding to my checklist of sights seen is no longer my thing,” he said.
With many places closed and will likely remain that way until things get better, Page believes that holiday travel will not be like it has been in previous years.
“Christmas over here is usually a huge deal — with people coming to the cities to wander and buy and enjoy the cold camaraderie,” he said. “There will be much less of that this year.”
The Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) has two meetings on Dec. 10 and Dec. 17 to “discuss the requests for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines,” according to remarks made by Dr. Hahn, Commissioner of Food and Drugs at the FDA, on Dec. 4.
With the advent of a vaccine, many believe airline travel will return to its usual numbers. Until then, numbers will continue to be low. Even with low traffic, those employed continue to work and trainees continue with schooling in the hopes of a return to normal soon.