Coronavirus

Logan Airport Nearly Empty as Pandemic Grounds Travel Industry

NBC Universal, Inc.

Terminals at Logan International Airport in Boston are almost deserted.

Very few passengers are traveling with the coronavirus pandemic lingering.

"I'm very nervous," said Raven Guenneguez, who was flying to Seattle. "I have hand sanitizer, I have alcohol spray to wipe down my seat, this mask, which I'm not even going to take off during the flight."

Countless flights are being canceled every day amid the COVID-19 crisis.

"We've been told to stay at home, and we are," said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research Group.

Passenger count is down drastically.

Wednesday, for example, the TSA reports about 119,000 people were screened at the nation's airports, compared to about 2.2 million at the same time last year, a 95% drop.

"Travel down the road looks like people wearing masks, people wearing gloves, limited service on the plane," said Harteveldt.

Experts say it will take a combination of stay-at-home guidelines being lifted along with medical advances to get people back in the skies.

"Once we start to see that there's a vaccine, once we have drugs that can help reduce the impact of COVID, and once people start to get the confidence of actually getting out there again, I think that we'll start to see increases," said Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association.

In Boston, the numbers are stark.

In a recent seven-day stretch, just over 10,000 people traveled out of Logan Airport, according to Massport.

That's down from almost 420,000 last year in the same time period, a plunge of about 97%.

"It's pretty wild," said South Boston resident Betsy Sachs, who flew in from Denver. "It's definitely a weird time to be traveling and to be in an airport."

Contact Us