Charting the decline in air traffic caused by COVID-19

https://www.flightrada​r24.com …affic-caused-by-covid-19/

We have noticed that our back yard swimming pool is so much cleaner since the reduction of all forms of traffic. Almost no pollution particles collecting on the surface and sinking to the bottom for the automated cleaner to hoover up - quite an astonishing difference in such a short space of time.

Our suburb is on the flight path for Brisbane Airport.

Cheers

Dennis

https://www.reuters.co​m …demand-sags-idUSKBN21I2BA

Airliners going into my local international airport usually fly the downwind, base & final or departure leg close to my house depending on wind direction. Yesterday I saw one.

London Heathrow is down to a single runway operation as of tomorrow. I live 16 miles from Heathrow and it is very much noticeably quieter and the air seems a lot cleaner but that could just be the nice weather we are having at the moment!

Commercial flights appear to be holding steady at about half of a year ago. With the virus still out there and Winter/flu/people staying indoors coming to the northern hemisphere I'm doubting this this level will hold. Hope to be proven wrong.

I've no flights planed through March, at a minimum. Maybe beyond that. I usually do 6 to 12 trips a year. This year, zilch. This was to be on the high side, with 4 international trips.
Even after things improve, I can do some things as well with a zoom meeting now, with a lower cost, and I have the infrastructure now to do such virtual training.

Seems air traffic is returning strong. My local airport had dropped all the way down to 29 flights daily. Last I read was it was buck up to nearly 60 flights daily. From personal experience, those that are taking off are flying at nearly capacity. Booked a flight for my son to go see his friend, and when selecting seats on both flights fewer than 10 seats were open on either fight. I know some are being held back, but still. That is a HUGE improvement for the airlines... not necessarily the travelers. I traveled a few times during the pandemic, and it was wonderful with flights only half full.

Anyway, things are sliding back to "normal" in air travel faster than imagined.

San Franciso International is not considered a major hub for US air travel, but it is a significant hub for International avaiation.
Air traffic at SFO has been stated to be down -80% over the past year, with some recent increase in traffic volume. My wife flew recently to Denver to visit a daughter (by previous marriage) and her family and said that Denver was pretty busy, but SFO was very empty.

Consulting SFO traffic volume reports, for February 2021, domestic passenger volume was down -77%, and Interational volume was down -89%; air carrier flight operations down -59%
Looking up Denver International, Feb 2021 domestic passenger traffic is down -43%, and International passenger is down -63% vs. 2020

Intersting...... RDU.. not a hub of either type...is not down only 21 percent year over year. Much better than the previous at about down 70 percent.

Croasdail wrote in post #19230687
Intersting...... RDU.. not a hub of either type...is not down only 21 percent year over year. Much better than the previous at about down 70 percent.

I just read this in an RDU article about RDU volume (Nov 2020) https://www.rdu.com …-to-lag-well-behind-2019/

"Raleigh-Durham International Airport saw an 18% increase in traffic in October compared to September and an 11% increase in flights being sold out of RDU. The total number of passengers who flew through RDU in October was just over 366,000, an 18% increase over September of this year, but a 71% decrease compared to October 2019. RDU anticipates seeing a moderate bump in traffic over the holidays.

“Next week marks the beginning of what would traditionally be a busy holiday season with a significant increase in the number of passengers traveling through RDU,” said Michael Landguth, president & CEO of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority. “Although we expect a modest increase, we anticipate that passenger traffic will remain well below the record-setting numbers we saw in 2019.”"

And stats for 'deplaned passengers' in Dec 2020 show these stats: http://www.rdu.com …vity-Report-with-CYTD.pdf

• Dec2020: 178,569, Dec 2019: 599,607, change: -70.2%
  

Yesterday the business report on my LA radio station said the major carriers are very concerned that business travel won't bounce back to pre-covid levels. Companies learned how to conduct business without traveling. Zoom, for example.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #19230747
Yesterday the business report on my LA radio station said the major carriers are very concerned that business travel won't bounce back to pre-covid levels. Companies learned how to conduct business without traveling. Zoom, for example.

And with the 'reluctance' of a substantial percentage of the US population, combined with slowness in many countries in getting vaccinations into arms, I would not expect 'normal' for a few more years at the minimum.

Normal is a relative term. In 2015 RDU had just over 10 million passengers. 2019, that had grown to 14 million passengers. Then in 2020... all the way down under 5 million. So far 2021 several airlines are seeing numbers way up. Spirit stopped all flights here. Alaska on the other hand has seen their number nearly double year over year. Load factors are up too.... not to hard to do on fewer flights.

I'm personally rather bullish on the whole thing. Business hasn't kicked in yet, but my firm just green lighted travel and customer visits. I suspect after summer your going to see business travel really rebound nicely. Im not part of the "it will take years" crowd. Lots of stuff can happen in the interim, but societies memory is collectively rather short.

The big growth markets were international flights... and those may take a while to come back. But I really do expect full flights this summer..... pent up demand is bigger than most expect. just my 2 cents worth.

The attitudes for business travel can be quite different from the attitudes of leisure travel. When your boss thinks there is a need to fly, and Zoom is not sufficient, you go. If you are a consumer with leisure travel in mind, you can put off a trip until you feel your destination is safe, as well as the risk of long hours of airplane travel thru airports with non-vaccinated fellow travelers.

Even though restaurants are opening to inddor dining here in CA, restaurants are finding customer reluctance to sit inside! So even if business lunches resume, 'have to' vs. 'want to' is key in consumer decision making. I think consumer confidence is also rather regional, as exemplified by areas with poor vaccination rates vs those with high vaccination rates.

Croasdail wrote in post #19230907
Normal is a relative term. In 2015 RDU had just over 10 million passengers. 2019, that had grown to 14 million passengers. Then in 2020... all the way down under 5 million. So far 2021 several airlines are seeing numbers way up. Spirit stopped all flights here. Alaska on the other hand has seen their number nearly double year over year. Load factors are up too.... not to hard to do on fewer flights.

I'm personally rather bullish on the whole thing. Business hasn't kicked in yet, but my firm just green lighted travel and customer visits. I suspect after summer your going to see business travel really rebound nicely. Im not part of the "it will take years" crowd. Lots of stuff can happen in the interim, but societies memory is collectively rather short.

The big growth markets were international flights... and those may take a while to come back. But I really do expect full flights this summer..... pent up demand is bigger than most expect. just my 2 cents worth.

I generally agree

Wilt wrote in post #19231043
The attitudes for business travel can be quite different from the attitudes of leisure travel. When your boss thinks there is a need to fly, and Zoom is not sufficient, you go. If you are a consumer with leisure travel in mind, you can put off a trip until you feel your destination is safe, as well as the risk of long hours of airplane travel thru airports with non-vaccinated fellow travelers.

Even though restaurants are opening to inddor dining here in CA, restaurants are finding customer reluctance to sit inside! So even if business lunches resume, 'have to' vs. 'want to' is key in consumer decision making. I think consumer confidence is also rather regional, as exemplified by areas with poor vaccination rates vs those with high vaccination rates.

Zoom can do a lot. I've done training with lab equipment, and let the customer or dealer drive the system- my record is someone in Singapore running the system over zoom. They get used to the time delay surprisingly quickly. I've another Singapore meeting later this week, and Shanghai next week. Sometimes, I configure the instrument before I leave work with samples and solvents, then run the demo from home due to the time difference; I don't have to go back to the office.

As for restaurants, locally, the service is much better ordering on-line, and picking it up than eating inside. Other places may well have a different dining experience.