As the Re-Open Florida Task Force meets to plan how to open up the state’s businesses, flights across the country still remain drastically low.
Orlando International Airport
The CEO of Southwest Airlines recently commented on just how low travel is in addition to how important he believes Disney might help to restore the nation’s travel patterns.
According to USA Today and Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, “The traffic levels are next to zero at this point,” with only 6% of the airlines’ seats booked. Kelly speculates that two of the main factors for travel to return are new airport safety measures and travel attractions reopening.
Orange County International Airport
He stated, people “need to have something to be able to do when they get there. So Disney World needs to open back up. Restaurants need to open back up.”
Orlando International Airport
Kelly noted that travel cancellations are “at unprecedented levels,” but the company is committed to altering their procedures to help passengers feel safe again and hopes to see flight numbers slowly increase. These measures could include limiting capacity, disinfecting, and working with the federal government to allow health screenings.
Orange County International Airport
But, Kelly believes that the increase in demand will not come until larger attractions give passengers a reason to do so. We will keep you updated as we learn more!
Check out a summary of the most recent Re-Open Florida Task Force meeting here!
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What do you think needs to re-open for flights to increase again? Let us know in the comments!
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The closed parks, beaches, etc. are a major part of the issue with reduced passenger demand, but reduced business travel is also a big issue. Something that has come up in conversations around my company is just how well, relatively speaking, we are able to function with just Zoom meetings. I used to travel a fair bit for work, including to WDW and Central FL. I have attended several conferences right on Disney property and many not too far away. Many of us feel that, even after the Covid-19 situation passes, we will never travel as much for work again. Even if WDW got back to full capacity again not just the Orlando area, but even WDW will be impacted by reduced conventions, conferences, etc.
Per the point in the DFB IG post earlier today I genuinely hope everyone is doing great.
I agree there will likely be a decrease in business travel as companies discover they can do remote meetings. Conferences and conventions are different animals, however. A lot of the benefit of those is the informal networking that happens in the hallways between sessions and at meal breaks.
Charlene, I completely agree with you that the conferences/conventions are very different than the 1:1 type business travel. But what people are discussing is when/if we’ll be able to do conferences again. To your points, much of the reason (if not most) why people go to to them is for the informal networking, socializing, chance for vendors to promote their products directly to potential customers, bonding over shared interests, etc. If attendees cannot pass out business cards, shake hands, sit next to each other at meals, need to sit 6 feet apart during sessions, cannot be next to each other at the bars after hours, etc., then I don’t know that the networking will be meaningful and companies/people will pay for it.
Many trade associations and various groups use conferences as a major source of income, so besides the hospitality and transportation industries, many groups will be hugely impacted as well. A conference that I go to on WDW property ever year in early February is already discussing whether to cancel the 2021 meeting. I really do hope a vaccine is developed, panic fades away or something so that things get back to relative normal real soon.
PS. I checked on Southwest nonstop flights from my nearest airport to MCO. The next scheduled available nonstop isn’t until the end of June (there used to be 2-3 a day). Of course, SW could always add more flights if WDW were to reopen in a few weeks(and there was demand), but this tells me that the travel industry is anticipating things getting back to relative normal right around 4th of July. I also looked into hotels at some nearby beach resort hotels closer to me and they are completely available all of June, but are still booked for 4th of July so it seems that consumers are also expecting the hospitality industry to be fairly back to normal by early July.
For giggles and grins, I checked Southwest from my area (Houston). There are about a dozen daily flights from HOU to MCO, including two non-stop. I don’t know how many they had previously. We normally fly United and they’re down to one flight daily from IAH to MCO.
Thanks for that Charlene. Considering the size of IAH and that it is United’s major hub I can only assume that in normal times there are a lot more daily nonstop flights from there to MCO. With stopovers in Atlanta, Nashville, BWI or other places, there are still 3-4 flights from here (RDU) to MCO. Considering the (relatively) short distance, it’s not common for people to get a connection when going to FL from here so that’s why I didn’t mention those. Since HOU is one of SW’s original airports I’m not surprised that they still have direct flights. But note that a lot of flights are being cancelled very last minute these days so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the flights we’re looking at never happen. My wife recently flew SW and she was one of only about 10 passengers on the whole plane. The flight (like most others these days) was likely operated at a major loss to SW. There were no snacks, drinks or anything like that. But on the upside, she had the whole row to herself and she said that she never saw a cleaner plane.