It's still slow going at the Minneapolis St. Paul International airport, but there are signs of improvement in air travel.
"Passenger levels hit their low in early April in the pandemic, when only about 5% of people we expected to travel were flying," said Patrick Hogan, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Airports Commission. "Now we are up to about 30 percent of the normal number of people we would expect to be flying. So that's an improvement."
Hogan says it has been a slow recovery. "There isn't a lot of business travel right now. Most of the uptick is in leisure travel, but that starts to wane in the fall with kids back in school," Hogan said.
Hogan said his biggest concern is that the commission, and all of its partners, survive this downturn. "When things do pick up, we need to make sure that we have a strong concessions community, a strong airline industry."
They are seeing a reshaping of the airline industry, with a reduction in the number of flights. MSP is one of the most affordable airports in the country which Hogan says helps the airlines.
As far as concessions, there are about 130 of them, and some are temporarily shutdown. "We don't know of any of them are planning to shut down permanently, but we know they are struggling," Hogan told WCCO's Susie Jones.
Airlines are losing billions of dollars a day, and Hogan says they want to make sure to do what they can to help out. "Part of that is going to be help from the federal government, but some help will come from the airports, to help the airlines stay afloat."