Summer travel is back and bigger than ever following over a year of being stuck inside due to the COVID pandemic.
With vaccination rates up and COVID cases down, air travel and popular destinations have opened back up to the public, allowing summer vacations once again.
Last year, the airline industry took a hit due to the decrease in travel, but this summer, Tri-Cities Airport is among many airports returning to normalcy and experiencing a surge they haven’t seen in quite some time.
“We had probably lost 90% of our passengers and now we’re back up to probably I would say about 80% of what our normal was prior to COVID,” said Executive Director of the Tri-Cities Airport, Gene Cossey.
Since Memorial Day weekend, new records continue to be hit every day in terms of people traveling to destinations. “I don’t think there are a lot of airports that are up to pre-pandemic levels but almost every day TSA tells us we screened more today than we did yesterday, which is good news because it means we’re recovering,” said Cossey.
