‘A lot of changes.’ Coronavirus cuts passenger traffic, flights at Blue Grass Airport
Blue Grass Airport has been hard hit by the effects of COVID-19, and the recovery will be a lengthy process, an airport spokeswoman said Tuesday.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes in flight schedules over the last 14 days,” said airport spokeswoman Amy Caudill. “It is much reduced to what we previously had.”
Caudill said most of the flight cancellations were happening on a day-to-day basis, but two regular routes have been temporarily cut.
United Airlines’ daily nonstop flights from Lexington to Houston International Airport will stop from April 1 to June 3, Caudill said. She said Delta’s six-day-per-week service to Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., is scheduled to be shut down until May 2.
As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, five of the nine departures scheduled for Tuesday afternoon and evening had been canceled. Seven of 19 scheduled arrivals had been canceled.
Passenger traffic has slowed to a trickle.
Specific passenger counts were not available, but flights, in general, were only about 10 percent full, Caudill said.
“Most of our flights were going out full in the past,” she said.
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Caudill said some of the businesses that are located at the airport have laid off employees, and some have reduced the hours they are open as a result of the slowdown.
She said retailers in the airport were open, though, and Dunkin’ Donuts and the Kentucky Ale Taproom were providing to-go service.
The airport suspended valet parking and closed its Park & Shuttle lot.
A COVID-19 section with updates has been added to the airport’s website.
United, Delta, American and Allegiant Air were operating at the airport and appeared to be giving passengers some flexibility in rescheduling flights.
United Airlines said on its website that customers who book between March 3 and March 31 can change their plans for free over the next year, and change fees were being waived “for all tickets issued on or before March 2 — domestic or international — with original travel dates of March 9 through May 31.”
Delta said customers “can cancel your ticket and the value of the ticket will become an eCredit for future use.” People who bought tickets in March can make changes as many times as they want for up to a year without paying a change fee, according to the website.
American Airlines was allowing customers to change their plans without a fee if they bought tickets on or before March 1, were scheduled to travel between now and May 31 and can travel before Dec. 31 or within a year of the “date the ticket was issued, whichever is earlier,” according to the website. “You may owe any difference in ticket price when you rebook your trip,” American said.
Allegiant’s website states that “customers with reservations may make a one-time change to their travel plans without incurring change or cancel fees. Changes and cancellations can be made directly by visiting Manage Travel. For cancellations, vouchers for the full amount of the current itinerary will be issued and emailed to the address on the original booking.”
Caudill had some specific advice for passengers who want to make changes to their travel plans: “Go online and look at some of the new resources that airlines have available,” such as options to chat with an agent.
“Sometimes calling is actually the longest way,” she said.
The extent of the coronavirus’ impact on the airport’s budget isn’t yet known, Caudill said, but, “we certainly are watching our expenses.”
Caudill has an optimistic outlook.
“We know air travel will come back,” Caudill said. “When our passengers are ready to fly again, we’ll be ready for them.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 8:03 PM.
