Southern covid-19 hot spots continue to draw local air passengers

Officials in Allegheny County have linked local covid-19 cases with travel to infection hot spots such as Myrtle Beach.

That doesn’t seem to have deterred passengers from booking area flights to the South Carolina beach mecca or to other destinations in Florida, where cases also have been on the rise.

On Thursday, 150 passengers were booked to fly from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity to Myrtle Beach. Of those headed to Florida on Spirit Airlines, the airport’s sole commercial carrier, 129 were flying to Orlando and 87 were traveling to Fort Lauderdale.

Spirit gradually resumed flights from Arnold Palmer Regional to Orlando beginning May 3, following a nearly monthlong shutdown after passenger numbers plummeted as the pandemic first took hold. Myrtle Beach and Fort Lauderdale routes since have been relaunched.

“Things have recovered nicely,” said Gabe Monzo, executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority that operates the airport. “Are they at last year’s levels? I don’t think so, but they’re not far off.”

To accommodate growing passenger bookings, Spirit has added planes with seating for 175 to the 145-seaters that had been serving the airport, Monzo said.

“They upgraded six aircraft last month,” he said.

Also, extra flights to Myrtle Beach were added three days per week, he said.

“As far as travel is concerned, people are doing it,” Monzo said. “Masks and sanitizing are the rule.”

The authority originally requested that everyone entering the Arnold Palmer terminal building wear a face covering. After a recent change in state covid-19 directives, the masks now are required, Monzo said.

New hand-washing stations are available, and airport staff sanitize the building after flights depart.

“Because we are such a small terminal building, we have a chance to clean it more often,” Monzo said.

Over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, Pittsburgh International Airport was expecting between 4,000 and 5,000 passengers each day to fly out to all destinations combined, according to airport spokesman Bob Kerlik.

“In normal times, we’d see about 15,000 daily through the checkpoint,” he said. “Still, that’s an increase from April, when departing passengers were less than 500 some days.”

Representatives from Spirit and Allegiant Air couldn’t immediately be reached to comment on passenger trends for their flights from Pittsburgh to Myrtle Beach and Florida destinations.