As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely distributed across North Carolina, some travelers are ready to take to the skies again.
A new survey conducted by the Raleigh-Durham International Airport indicates that the travel industry may soon see a partial recovery from the pandemic as more people are vaccinated and confidence in the safety of air travel grows.
Stephanie Hawco is the Director of Media Relations at RDU. She said 76 percent of survey respondents agreed that being vaccinated makes travel safer.
“Ninety-one percent of the passengers we surveyed said they’ve either already been vaccinated or they intend to be in the near future and 72 percent of them said they have either already flown since they got the vaccine or they plan on booking travel after they’re fully vaccinated,” Hawco said. “So, this supports our idea that being vaccinated is really the key to passenger confidence right now and we think that’s going to be what reignites the recovery for RDU and airlines.”
The travel industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel spending totaled a mere $679 billion dollars in 2020 – a 42 percent annual decline, or nearly $500 billion dollars, from 2019.
From last March through the end of 2020, the pandemic has resulted in $492 billion dollars in cumulative losses for the U.S. travel economy, equating to a loss of approximately $1.6 billion each day.
In April of 2020, RDU saw a 97 percent decrease in passenger traffic – even amid holiday travel. While the airport normally sees more than 200,000 travelers over Easter weekend, in 2020, amid a statewide lockdown, only 12,600 were reported.
Hawco said those trends are just now starting to reverse.
“The Easter trend follows a trend that we’ve been seeing for a while now since the recovery has started and our numbers are picking up again,” Hawco said. “Business travel has dropped off, but leisure travel is increasing. So, it’s really good to see people getting out and taking those vacations and trips to see family and friends – we think there’s a real pent-up demand for that.”
Overall, only 4.9 million travelers made their way through RDU in 2020 as compared to 14.2 million in 2019.
After a year of unprecedented losses, Hawco said RDU expects enough people to be vaccinated by July to give the airport a much-needed bump in revenue and foot traffic.
“If being vaccinated increases passenger traffic, and 91 percent of our customers say they intend to be vaccinated, then that’s a great trend for us,” Hawco said.
For those who have not traveled during the pandemic, Hawco said they can expect continued, stringent health and safety protocols at RDU – many of which will remain in place even with widespread vaccination.
“You know I think we may be looking at a new normal – not just the airports and airlines – but across society,” Hawco said. “I believe some of these measures like the enhanced cleaning and disinfecting, the social-distancing, and the mask requirements are going to be with us for quite a while.”
Lead photo via RDU.
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