You know that the current health crisis has caused people to cancel trips and airlines to temporarily slash flight schedules to the bone.
Here are few other measurements that underscore how bad it is right now.
TSA screening numbers hit record low
On Tuesday, April 7, the Transportation Security Administration screened just 97,310 passengers and flight crew members at all airports across the country.
That’s a record low for TSA and down 95% from the 2,091,056 passengers screened at airports a year ago on the same weekday.
TSA screening officers also continue to test positive for COVID-19.
On Wednesday, April 8, TSA reported that in the previous 14 days, 43 screening officers and 7 non-screening officers who’d had limited interaction with travelers tested positive for COVID-19.
TSA is updating that list daily. The agency is also posting the airport, last day worked, checkpoint location and shift times for each TSA officer who tests positive. So you can check to see if you may have been exposed.
Hotel occupancy rates way down
Hotels around the country are experiencing shocking year-over-year declines, according to data from STR.
Comparing the week of March 29 through April 4, 2020 with the same time period last year:
Occupancy across the country is down 68.5%, to 21.6% and average daily rates (ADR) are down 41.5% to $76.51.
When you look at the Top 25, the numbers are worse:
The Top 25 markets were down over 74 %, to 19.4%, with the Oahu, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York and Seattle markets getting hammered the worst.
In some cities, hotels are renting rooms to local governments to house health care workers, first responders, military personnel, people who have been ordered to quarantine, infected patients and homeless people at risk from the virus.
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