Erie's Airport: Flights and Destinations are Down but Travelers Still Make Connections

Travelers are making connections despite fewer flights and fewer destinations available from Erie International Airport this year.

Daily service to Charlotte, North Carolina, by American Airlines and to Washington, D.C., aboard United Airlines is getting travelers where they need to go, but sometimes with cumbersome connections.

Karrissa Fisher and her mother, Tammy Morschhauser, of Erie, flew with other family members to Charlotte on Friday to make connections to Oklahoma City for a family baby shower.

"It's about the only option, but it works," Fisher said.

Brandi Johns also flew to Charlotte early Friday afternoon to catch a flight home to Austin, Texas. Johns and her mother, Chenisse Pace-Johns, visited family in Erie last week.

Making connections in Chicago instead might have been faster, Johns said.

"I won't get home until 9 o'clock," she said.

American Airlines suspended its Erie- Chicago service in summer 2020. United Airlines grounded Erie- Chicago flights in January.

More: United Airlines temporarily suspends direct flights from Erie to Chicago's O'Hare airport

The United service to and from O'Hare International Airport had been expected to resume in late February. It's now expected to resume March 28, Erie International Airport Executive Director Derek Martin said.

Also on hold is Detroit service suspended by Delta Air Lines in July.

"I miss Delta to Detroit," Adam McGaughey, of Erie, said. McGaughey is a frequent flyer for his work in information technology for the health care industry.

"American to Charlotte is fine if you're going on to South Carolina, Georgia or Florida. But if you're heading west, not so much," he said.

"Delta also had a great loyalty program. I had status with Delta," he said.

Flights and destinations have been grounded in Erie and nationwide through the COVID-19 pandemic as businesses eliminate or curtail travel, as borders remain closed, and as infrequent flyers fly even more infrequently, bypassing family gatherings and packed resorts.

The worst month for air travel locally in 2020 was April, when just 421 travelers boarded planes in Erie, compared to 8,201 in April 2019.

The number of passengers flying out of Erie last year was almost 78% below 2019 totals, 43,354 compared to 106,765 in 2019.

Nationally, the numbers are just as dismal.

The Transportation Security Administration screened 6.7 million passengers at U.S. airports during the final week of February. And while those numbers are rebounding, they're still far below pre-pandemic numbers. In the final week of February 2019, 15.4 million passengers were screened by TSA.

"The airlines basically are just trying to survive," Martin said. "Delta lost $12 billion or $14 billion last year. The industry as a whole lost over $37 billion."

Delta Air Lines in January reported 2020 losses of $12.4 billion.

Still, the news locally hasn't been all bad. Erie travelers gained Washington Dulles International service in December. And Erie International Airport received $18.5 million in federal funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act that it has largely used or has earmarked for improvements.

More: New Erie-to- Washington nonstop air service flies into county

The lull in travel has accommodated construction, Martin said this past summer.

“When there are only 15 or 20 cars in the parking lot to move out of the way, improving the parking lot gets easier,” he said.

More: Construction takes flight at Erie airport

And the relief funds are paying for work that otherwise wouldn't be done for some time.

"Using standard federal grants for those construction projects, it would have taken us years to get the money to pay for them,” Martin said.

And for now, travelers can get where they want to go, air passengers said.

" Charlotte is a great place to connect," said Tamara Schomske, who works in advertising and flew from Dallas to Jacksonville to Charlotte to Erie last week. "It's a big hub for American."

Contact Valerie Myers at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie's airport: Flights and destinations are down but travelers still make connections

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