{"id":89382,"date":"2020-04-10T16:45:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T22:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/airport-travel-down-nearly-95-in-durango\/"},"modified":"2020-04-10T22:45:05","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T22:45:05","slug":"airport-travel-down-nearly-95-in-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/airport-travel-down-nearly-95-in-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Airport travel down nearly 95% in Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mark
Mark Stockton, on the cart, and Brian Spaniel, both with Durango-La Plata County Airport, take advantage of the empty parking lot to repaint the parking spaces Friday at the airport.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Airport passenger traffic is down a staggering 90% to 94% at Durango-La Plata County Airport as the coronavirus outbreak forces people to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel.<\/p>\n

In a typical year, Durango\u2019s airport would see about 3,260 passengers between April 2 and April 8.<\/p>\n

This year, however, as flights are canceled and people chose not to travel, that number has fallen to just 226 passengers in the same time frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible,\u201d said Tony Vicari, director of the airport. \u201cThe downturn in the commercial airline industry is absolutely unprecedented. There hasn\u2019t been a fall off in demand like this ever in the history of commercial aviation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"What
What should be a very busy Durango-La Plata County Airport heading into the Easter weekend is basically empty Friday.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango\u2019s downturn is not unique \u2013 commercial airports nationwide are seeing an average decline in passengers of about 93% to 95% as more strict stay-at-home orders are put in place across the U.S.<\/p>\n

So who is still traveling?<\/p>\n

Offering general observations, Vicari said many people getting on planes include airline flight crews that live in the Durango area and have to essentially commute to work via aircraft to central hubs in Denver or Phoenix.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s seen medical personnel traveling back and forth to Durango. And there\u2019s been a fair number of people going to visit family who may be sick and need assistance.<\/p>\n

Flights, Vicari said, are down too, accordingly.<\/p>\n

\"What
What should be a very busy Durango-La Plata County Airport heading into the Easter weekend is basically empty Friday.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Normally, the airport\u2019s two main carriers \u2013 United Airlines and American Airlines \u2013 would each fly about two to four arrivals and departures a day. Now, each airline is flying only one or two arrivals and departures a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty dramatic,\u201d Vicari said.<\/p>\n

The airport itself has not had to lay off its crew. Vicari said the airport is in a strong position to weather the financial losses caused by the pandemic. And, he said the airport qualifies for federal assistance.<\/p>\n

\"Unlike
Unlike the passenger parking lot, the rental car lot Friday at the Durango-La Plata County Airport is completely full, looking like a used car lot.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A screen showing the arriving and departing flights Friday at the Durango-La Plata County Airport.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The brunt of the impacts, he said, is to the airlines, as well as concessions in the airport like rental cars businesses and the restaurant and gift shop. Vicari said the airport is offering deferred rent options to help the businesses bridge the gap from revenue loss until operations can resume.<\/p>\n

But for many airport crews, work remains somewhat normal and consistent.<\/p>\n

Air cargo is still being flown into the region bringing freight into the region. The U.S. Forest Service air tanker base is getting ready to mobilize for fire season. And there have been limited military flights.<\/p>\n

Vicari said airport staff is taking advantage of low passenger traffic, being able to take care of needs within the terminal and parking lots that are typically hard to do maintenance on when it\u2019s crowded.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of those needs are hard to maintain with our regular operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

not to travel because of coronavirus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,915,28,29,810],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-89382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-durango-la-plata-county-airport","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-tourism-recreation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89382"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=89382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}