The pandemic hit some sectors of the economy much harder than others. Restaurants and bars, for example, were shut down in many places, but all over the country airports saw a huge decline in travelers.
Travelers have returned to Richmond International. Some seats in waiting areas are blocked to assure social distancing, and everyone ‘s wearing a mask, but there are lines at security, and flights are full. That’s a big change from last year at this time, when spokesman Troy Bell says fewer than 250 people boarded planes here. "We had more people working at the airport than flying through the airport.”
On some days last spring, marketing director Brad Boettcher says Roanoke-Blacksburg’s Regional Airport saw three percent of its usual passenger load.
“We had two low days last April when only 25 people were departing each day where normally about that time it would be about a thousand.”
And the scene was equally quiet at Charlottesville-Albemarle’s Regional Airport where the airlines decided they would only fly to their hubs – Charlotte, Atlanta and D.C.
“We went from about 25 flights a day outbound to -- at one point in April -- three flights a day,” says the airport's executive director, Melinda Crawford. She was determined to keep employees working. Some were assigned new duties – like cleaning the terminal instead of driving a shuttle bus, and she created staggered shifts to keep COVID from spreading.
“The worst thing that could have happened to us is that one of us got it, and we gave it to everybody else and nobody could work, so we tried to rotate employees.”
As the number of travelers fell, so did revenue.
“Fifty percent of this airport’s operations are funded by parking," Crawford explains. "When we went down to 22 passengers outbound a day from about 1,300, that meant there was nobody here for parking. There was nobody here for food and beverage or the concessionaires.”
And the airports couldn’t collect much from those who did business on the property.
“The airlines couldn’t pay what they had been paying.," Crawford says. "The rental cars weren’t paying what they were paying. In fact Hertz rental car went into bankruptcy.”
On the other hand, the airport saved money when the parking lot emptied out, making planned renovations easier and cheaper than expected.
“We had a lot of money set aside, because it was going to be so involved – moving passengers to get the work done – rehabbing those parking lots," Crawford recalls. "When it was empty we just brought a company in and did it, and it ended up costing us nearly $200,000 and we had budgeted nearly two million for it.”
While airports cut unnecessary expenses, some bills still had to be paid. Again, Richmond’s spokesman Troy Bell.
“There are millions of dollars every year in debt service, and of course our number one thing in terms of our operationing is just payroll expense. We have, today, about 180 employees on payroll at Richmond International. Prior to the pandemic we probably saw a little better than 200, so we’ve had some attrition. We’ve frozen a lot of positions. We’ve had some incentives for early retirement, and some people took us up on that, so we’re doing more with less as we see this through.”
But the biggest factor keeping airports aloft was the CARES program providing $10 billion in federal funding.
