Passenger Trains > TSA screens over 1 million pax on Sunday

https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2020/10/19/tsa-screens-over-1m-passengers-single-day-first-time-march

First million-plus day since March. And over 6 million pax in the past week. While it's slowly rebounding, traffic is at 40% of pre-COVID levels.

Posted from Android

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/20 15:53 by Dcmcrider.

While I didn't fly on my recent trip, all hotels I stayed at seemed to be doing good business. Most restaurants were crowded albeit it some at reduced capacity depending on state regulations. My friends nephew did fly Delta yesterday. Plane full excepting center seat so that's 1/3 less capacity. But instead of two daily departures to his destination there is only one. So everyone was re-booked onto the one flight.  Both car rental locations seemed busy. I guess that makes sense. No worries about being close to anyone in a rental car. My one Amtrak train was quite busy. But again with less than half the previous capacity, the overall total traveling the route is probably equal or less than before.  More on that when I get my trip report together. 

A friend was on a domestic flight out west a little while ago.  All the premium seats were empty and the passengers were kept together in the cheap seats, which was pretty much full.
Guess they don't really care about distancing.

RRTom Wrote:
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> A friend was on a domestic flight out west a
> little while ago.  All the premium seats were
> empty and the passengers were kept together in the
> cheap seats, which was pretty much full.
> Guess they don't really care about distancing.

The airlines are leveraged toward filling 85% or more of their seats, and their $49 fares are not getting them to that target.

These are the same folks who opposed the Passenger Bill of Rights, after they stranded people on the tarmac for half a day, etc.

Revnue mix for the airlines is as important as load factor. The press reports suggest that although personal travel has rebounded somewhat, business travel has not. That's particularly worrisome for international flights, where the people in the front collectively generate as much revenue as the people in the back. . 

Have you looked at business class fares?    I'll use American as an example as it's my preferred airline from Chile to LAX.  Their flights to MIA are doing fairly well in the back of the bus.  Up front, flight attendent friends of ours say 10 pax (out of 35 seats) is a heavy load and they're all upgrades.  And if you look at flights a few months out,  they're quoting B-class fares of around $6000 roundtrip.  What planet are these people operating on?   And if you book a cheapo and request an upgrade,  they put you on the airport wait list.  As an aside, in the near past when things were normal,  B-class was usually $3800 and upgrades were often given when you booked the flight,  as least for this 3 million miler.  Thatta way to go Doug Parker....maybe he'll move to a railroad and screw that up.. Just my thoughts.

Dcmcrider Wrote:
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> First million-plus day since March. And over 6
> million pax in the past week. While it's slowly
> rebounding, traffic is at 40% of pre-COVID levels.

Thanks for the link. I heard the report over the radio the other day.

I was still flying until right before the California lockdowns in March, and airplanes were already empty. Even without the politicians meddling, people were already acting like adults. Proof of that was no sneezing, no coughing from passengers on any of my flights ~7 months ago, quite a contrast to pre-COVID days of "good" economic times where I was guaranteed to hear someone coughing/sneezing/sniffling.

I've flown couple of roundtrips this month already, and while the flight seemed full, as mentioned already by others, that's due to reduced number of flights. Contrast to the report above, "premium" seatings were filled, but likely from upgrades (me), rather than from business travelers being subsizied by their employers.

Until potential passengers feel comfortable about the safety levels posed  by a train or air trip, they are going to hold off travel.

My sister and brother in law took the Auto-Train last week on a quick round trip to the NY area.  Amtrak people were wiping eveything in sight, handing out masks, asking people to maintain distance. Both were very impressed.

Maybe this is real, maybe this wiping is theater. But, my b-i-l is immune compromised, and he was very pleased with what he saw as Amtrak paying attention to clean work areas.  And they wrote to Mr Flynn to express that feeling.

RRTom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A friend was on a domestic flight out west a
> little while ago.  All the premium seats were
> empty and the passengers were kept together in the
> cheap seats, which was pretty much full.
> Guess they don't really care about distancing.

Of course not, distancing is nonsense.