Passengers are returning to Piedmont Triad International Airport, but travel is still down compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Traffic in September was up 14% over last year, but down 22% compared to 2019. Kevin Baker with PTI says the loss of business travel is at the root of that.
“This is a heavily business traveler airport," says Baker. "On a normal basis, on a pre-pandemic basis, about two-thirds of our passengers were business and one-third were leisure. And until those business travelers return in droves, we're going to remain lower than we should be in terms of total passengers.”
Baker says crew shortages have also impacted their numbers. The total number of seats available for booking in November is down about 26% over 2019, meaning that airlines have cut routes. He says some regional airlines are just parking their jets right now.
“And that's because they couldn't find crews for them," says Baker. "One of those regional jets would normally be serving our Dulles market from here to Dulles in D.C., and we don't have that service right now at all, because they don't have anybody to fly that plane. So that's it's really hurting us. It hurts markets of our size a lot worse than it hurts the hubs. The hubs still get fed pretty much on a normal basis.”
Passenger traffic at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a major hub for American Airlines, is down less than 1% over 2019.