More Cuts Expected to Yeager's Already Lopped Air Service
How has the coronavirus affected operations at Charleston’s Yeager Airport? The numbers tell the story.
On an average day in late March, 677 passengers pass through Yeager’s Transportation Security Administration screening checkpoint. On Tuesday, TSA screeners processed 88 people.
In February, 13 flights departed the Charleston airport each day. By Tuesday, that number had dropped to five. One of them, a Delta flight to Atlanta, departed Charleston on Tuesday with 17 passengers and more than 100 empty seats. On Wednesday morning, the crew of an American flight to Washington D.C., was expecting to board only nine ticketed passengers, but not one of them showed up for the flight.
Yeager Airport’s parking garage, which normally collects fees from 633 vehicles a day at this time of year, ended the day Tuesday with only 74 vehicles in the building. On average, parking revenue is down $5,031 per day, according to Yeager Airport Director Nick Keller.
Overall, business at the Charleston airport is down about 85 percent from what it was one month ago — on par with other airports across the nation, according to Keller.
Keller briefed members of Yeager’s governing board on the airport’s gloomy business activity during a teleconference meeting on Wednesday.
“It’s a somber day today, compared with last month’s meeting,” Keller told board members. Numbers are expected to worsen before starting to improve, he said.
Delta has announced plans to drop two additional daily flights to Atlanta starting April 1, while United plans to drop one of its three remaining daily flights to Chicago. American Airlines has not yet announced any planned reductions in flights, Keller said.
But not all developments from Wednesday’s meeting were gloomy. The airport board voted to move forward with a runway rehabilitation plan, and to hire the design firm L.R. Kimball to complete plans for a new aircraft parking apron to serve Marshall University’s aviation school adjacent to Yeager’s general aviation area.
Military air traffic that had dropped off to nothing in recent weeks has begun to rebound at Yeager’s Capital Jet Service general aviation operation. Several transient Navy and Marine aircraft made refueling stops there on Tuesday and Wednesday, and training exercises have been booked for coming weeks at several former surface mines within 30 miles of the airport that serve as firing ranges and remote landing sites for military aviators.
Keller said the airport is federally mandated to remain open no matter how little business it generates in order to offer refueling service to military aircraft, provide an emergency landing site and provide an operational site for air ambulance helicopters and airplanes.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at
304-348-5169 or follow
@rsteelhammer on Twitter.
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