Here are some questions and answers about
flying during the coronavirus pandemic.
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE STILL FLYING?
The number of people traveling on airlines is
scraping along at levels not seen in decades,
and there are only about 17 passengers on
the average domestic flight. But that’s just
an average.
The number of people passing through
airport security checkpoints has been rising
since mid-April, but it is still down 93% from
a year ago. The Transportation Security
Administration screened 163,692 people on
Monday, compared with nearly 2.5 million on
the comparable day a year ago.
SO WHY ARE SOME FLIGHTS FULL?
Partly it is due to the high number of
canceled flights.
“On routes where there used to be scores of
flights between the different carriers, now
there may be two or three,” says Robert Mann,
a former airline executive and now a consultant
in the New York area.
Airlines slash their flight schedules, and then
they cancel even more flights in the last
few days before departure. That can force
passengers who were booked on several
different flights to board the same plane.
Planes are more likely to be crowded on
certain routes, especially those between
so-called hub airports operated by the
same airline.
Image: Emilio Morenatti