TYLER, Texas — While most travelers have canceled plans in the coming months due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes travel just cannot be avoided because of family emergencies or essential business.
However, there are concerns over whether air travel will grounded to a halt due to COVID-19 concerns and shelter-at-home orders.
Across the board:
Broadly, airports are considered an essential service, and thus remain in operation during shelter-at-home orders.
CBS19 reached out to East Texas Regional, Dallas Love Field, and DFW Airport who all reported operating as normal, though with much less traffic through the buildings.
Tyler Pounds was unable to provide comment as of Friday afternoon.
Each airport says their staff is doing extra cleaning and sanitizing to ensure the safety of passengers.
CBS19 visited the website Flight Aware to see just how many flights were canceled by Friday morning.
Tyler Pounds:
Flights Cancelled: 6
Frontier: 100% Canceled
American: 50% Canceled
East Texas Regional:
Flights Canceled: 2
American: 33% Canceled
Dallas Love Field:
Flights Canceled: 63
Southwest: 13% Canceled
Delta: 60% Canceled
Airport Daily Passengers: Down 73%
DFW Airport:
Flights Cancelled: 948 (51% of total daily flights)
American: 62%+ Canceled (does not include regional "American Eagle" flights)
So what is the bottom line? Airports are operating, but flight schedules are very fluid and likely to be changed.
The best advice, call your airline before heading to the airport to make sure things are still good to go!
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