[ad_1]
Travel made a comeback when long lines formed at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.
Passenger traffic at Austin Airport has been increasing since March with the rise in coronavirus vaccines and a decrease in coronavirus cases, signifying a rebound in passenger numbers since the beginning of the year.
“It’s exciting to see,” said airport spokeswoman Sam Haynes. “That makes us happy, it makes us optimistic about the future of air travel in Austin.”
People are traveling again on vacation and to see friends and family.
CONNECTED:Austin air traffic fell in a pandemic, but cargo flights increased; The airport’s recovery could take years
But it’s not just more travelers who are causing long lines at the airport (although most of it is). The airport is still asking travelers to maintain social distancing, adding to a queue, and one of the airport’s three security checkpoints remains closed, Haynes said. The checkpoint was closed last year due to the low passenger volume during the pandemic.
However, the airport has reopened its economy parking lots for the first time since the pandemic began, Haynes said. The demand for on-site parking has increased as more and more people are on the move, she said.
“We expect these heightened trends to continue into the summer,” she said.
In 2020, Austin-Bergstrom passenger traffic took a nosedive from March when the first coronavirus cases hit central Texas. Passenger traffic fell from 701,000 travelers in March to about 48,000 in April, an anemic number not seen since the airport opened in May 1999.
However, figures from March this year show that passenger traffic has increased from around half a million travelers at the end of last year to around 735,000. However, that’s only half the volume the airport recorded before the 2019 pandemic.
Airport officials said Friday that current passenger numbers are approaching that of the 2016 summer travel season according to the latest data available from April.
About 841,000 passengers traveled through Austin-Bergstrom in April 2021, a 1,660% increase from April 2020 but still only 40% of the pre-pandemic April 2019 volume.
The expected increase in vacation travel comes after the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued guidelines that fully vaccinated individuals can travel domestically at low risk for themselves if they take precautions such as masking and maintaining social distancing.
Federal regulations continue to require masks on airplanes, buses, trains, and other public transport traveling to, from within, or out of the United States, as well as at airports and train stations.
On the holiday weekend, which counts as the Thursday through Monday period, more than 37 million Americans could travel 50 miles or more from home, according to AAA Texas. That would be 60% more than in 2020, but 13% fewer travelers than in the period before the 2019 pandemic.
Texas is expected to travel 3 million people during this five-day vacation season, of which approximately 2.8 million will take to the streets and 192,000 travelers will be in the air. But even the travel volume in Texas is around 14% lower than in 2019, according to the AAA Texas.
Across the country, nearly 2.5 million Americans will travel by air during Memorial Day – nearly six times more people than last year. But that’s still 750,000 fewer than in 2019.
CONNECTED:Allegiant plans a $ 75 million operations center at Austin Airport that will create 89 jobs
If you’re traveling by air, Austin-Bergstrom officials recommend:
• Know which terminal your flight is departing from. Frontier and Allegiant both depart from the South Terminal, which is inaccessible from the main Barbara Jordan terminal.
• Online check of garage parking spaces at abiaparking.com. The parking fees are flat rate without additional fees.
• Arrive at least 2 hours earlier for your flight during peak travel times and at least 90 minutes earlier during off-peak times.
• Display of waiting times for security checks in real time at aus.tsa.iinside.com.
• Checking your hand luggage: The TSA allows a liquid hand disinfection container with a capacity of up to 12 ounces per passenger in hand luggage until further notice.
[ad_2]
