How a Midsized Airport Reacts to a Pandemic

• With the headlines blaring about the unprecedented crisis in the airline industry, it’s easy to overlook another critical part of the aviation ecosystem that’s hurting just as badly: Airports. Skift Airline Weekly caught up with Christina Cassotis, who leads Pittsburgh International Airport, for her view on how the pandemic has brought the airport to a virtual standstill.
  
  Skift Airline Weeklylast spoke to Cassotis for our Nov. 4, 2019 feature story, when Pittsburgh was seeing traffic rise and was bullish about adding more international service. In a few months, that has all collapsed. “Our worst-case scenario — what if we were to see a 30% decline in traffic — is now our best-case,” Cassotis said. “We’re down 90%.”
  
  Pittsburgh started tracking the pandemic’s progress on Jan. 23, when news out of China suggested that Covid-19 could spread beyond Asia and become a global pandemic. The airport implemented its irregular operations (IROPS) plan on March 12 and told all employees that IROPS would “be the state of play until it’s not,” Cassotis said. The airport made as many of its employees work remotely as possible, while retaining public-safety and critical maintenance functions. Pittsburgh is consolidating operations in fewer concourses, has shut down its train system, and has reduced the number of parking facilities it operates.
  
  But airports in cities like Pittsburgh, unlike New York and Los Angeles, for example, can’t close. It serves two military bases and operates a logistics center for cargo flights. Cassotis said data for cargo operations are not yet available for March, but the airport has seen an uptick in the amount of freight it handles. Pittsburgh also is storing more than 90 aircraft for airlines and is retaining staff to maintain the tarmac surfaces.
  
  But Cassotis is not bullish on the recovery of air passenger demand, ruling out a quick “V-shaped” recovery and suggesting that a prolonged “U-shaped” or double-dip “W-shaped” recovery may be more realistic.

Airports Get $10b in CARES Act

• Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) lobbied for airports to be included in the $2t CARES Act. The act includes about $10b for airports, which ACI-NA said will help defray the $14b shortfall airports are expected to report this year. The formula by which these funds will be disbursed — how much each airport will get — is still being worked out.
  
  Most airports have suspended nonessential capital improvement programs, but what remains unclear is how projects funded through the Airport Improvement Program grants will proceed. Another way airports raise funds, through municipal bonds, also now is in question while the markets are in turmoil.
  
  Christina Cassotis of Pittsburgh notes that airports are critical infrastructure, and airport capital improvement programs provide construction jobs. “Infrastructure is a good investment and is itself a stimulus,” she said. “If you want to put people back to work, start fixing things.”