Bay Area airports still struggle to return to pre-COVID levels

The middle seats are mostly refilled, as are the TSA security checkpoints, and Alaska Airlines flight attendant Cassie Dole is out of reading time on her flights to and from the Bay Area.

“Everyone wears masks, but other than that it looks like it’s been two summers,” Dole said. “You see people going to Disney World, families on planes, grandparents visiting families for the first time in two years.”

It may seem like the flight is back to its busy and boring pre-pandemic peak. But literally, it’s not half.

Analysis of airport traffic data shows all three Bay Area airports are still well below pre-COVID levels – and with cases on the rise again, the rebound has met with more turbulence . The number of passengers who flew in June through Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco airports is still about half of that of June 2019.

Oakland International Airport leads the pack with more than 700,000 passengers in June 2021, a drop of 33% from 1.2 million passengers in June 2019. San Jose International Airport handled more of 700,000 passengers in June, 46% less than the 1.4 million passengers. he had in June 2019.

And with many of its international flights still not reverted to pre-pandemic schedules, San Francisco has been the slowest to recover: its 2.2 million passengers in June 2021 were down 59% from the 5 , 5 million passengers who flew to and from SFO in June. 2019.

The Bay Area has a large number of international and business travelers, who don’t fly as much – a major reason “why we’re not seeing our traffic at 2019 levels,” said Erin Francis-Cummings, president and chief executive officer of tourism. Destination Analysts market research agency.

Thanks to the huge demand for leisure travel in June and July, Francis-Cummings has found that airports near vacation destinations, such as Santa Barbara or Palm Springs, “are doing very well.”

There’s another explanation why Bay Area flights in general seem more crowded: The number of flights operating at airports in the region is also much lower than two years ago. Oakland saw a 35% drop; San Jose is down 45% and SFO is down by half. In turn, the flights that operate are as full or often more full than before.

But the news about the delta variant has “disturbed the general sentiment of travelers,” according to Francis-Cummings. She has seen a “nice upward trajectory of people saying they want to travel and feel good about their trip” since February – until just two weeks ago. The spike in new infections has had a particularly strong effect on Bay Area travelers, who tend to be more cautious of COVID-19.

“While I would love to see us have a full travel and flight recovery by the end of the year, it might be a bit optimistic at this point,” said Francis-Cummings.

For leisure travelers, however, the old frustrations – along with some obvious news related to COVD – are back.

Craig Byrum flew from Seattle to San Jose late last month and noticed the “super, super busy, super crowded” terminal as he sat by a luggage conveyor belt for hours waiting for the arrival of his daughter.

“It’s no different from before,” Byrum said, except for the “suffocating” pain of wearing a mask.

While still lower than 2019, passenger numbers for the three Bay Area airports have grown rapidly since February – more than the typical increase for the summer travel season. Bay Area trend generally mirrors that of the United States.After a 95% drop in April 2020, the number of passengers passing through TSA checkpoints nationwide has been increasing rapidly since February of this year, reaching nearly 57 million passengers in June. That’s around 70% of the 77 million passengers who flew in June 2019.

Dole noticed a sudden surge in passenger numbers on his Alaska Airlines flights in mid-April, around the time vaccines became eligible for everyone in California.

“It didn’t really look like a slow ramp-up of people,” she said. Now she feels the flights are even busier than before the pandemic.

“There was really no one on the plane, and now the seats are oversold and the airports are really, really full,” Dole said. “It’s been quite difficult to change my mindset not to have people on the plane and just read my book at the end so far.”

Rajesh Raghunath, an essential worker who flew many times during the pandemic to set up coronavirus testing equipment, had mixed feelings about the return from the crowded airport. While traveling during the early days of the pandemic was a cinch, it seemed “scary” with flights so empty, he said.

Now, with crowded flights, the delays are back and he has new concerns about restarting COVID cases.