Covid-19 and Air Travel

Representatives of Huntsville International Airport say they stand to lose millions of dollars in revenue.

The shutdown.

Huntsville international airport along with airports across the country are requesting 10-billion- dollars in emergency funding.

It's to help combat the impact of the coronavirus.

Waay 31's rodneya ross is live outside of the airport this morning where representatives say they're expecting to lose millions of dollars due to the pandemic.

A spokesperson for huntsville international airport told us they could lose up to 10 million dollars in revenue.

If the pandemic lasts longer than three months -- they could lose even more.

Airports say they need this money because the need to travel has dropped because of the coronavirus.

That's because employers are restricting travel, conferences are being canceled, and passengers don't want to risk getting sick.

A spokesperson told us the parking numbers went from only being down 30-percent - to now 86-percent.

The only thing she could compare this type of revenue loss to was 9-11 - when airports closed for a couple of days... "when 9-11 happened, to get us back to pre 9-11 numbers it was 2004 before we were back to those numbers, so we don't know with this how long it will last number one and then when it's over it's not over for us.

It takes time to build back up and we don't know when we'll be back to pre-covid 19 numbers."

The spokesperson also told us they changed some operational procedures and put budget restrictions in place.

The changes will support their top three priorities which are the safety of passengers and staff, staying open, and avoiding lay-offs.

Reporting