Fear, Lockdowns Continue to Negate PIA Passenger Traffic
Make no mistake, passenger traffic at Peoria Int'l Airport wasn't affected by "COVID-19." It was cut in half due to media-induced fear and politically-motivated lockdowns, now one year old.
And if anyone wonders why volume hasn't recovered, all you must do is read the "COVID-19 Information" section on the airport website. Why would one willingly fly for a reason but absolute necessity? We are living in what will probably be regarded as both the saddest and silliest period of our nation's history.
So it is frustrating but hardly shocking that passenger volume is way down the first two months of 2021. WEEK TV-25 reports that PIA handled 20,781 and 22,606 passengers, respectively, in January and February.
Worse, PIA never provided (that I can find) exact passenger figures for 2020. It is as if they are suffering from decliningpassengertrafficatcentralillinoisregionalairportitis, which I'll define as "fear of reporting the facts to hide embarrassment." It is named for those years in which Bloomington-Normal's Central Illinois Regional Airport, and/or the local newspaper, The Pantagraph, were slow to report annual traffic, mostly likely to hide embarrassing year-to-year declines in passenger traffic.
Will PIA recover? Someday, but it will take awhile. Maybe a year or two. Business travel must return. Mask mandates must end. Fear must be overcome. The media must find a new pet subject to run into the ground. Probably sooner than later, economic recession (or depression), foreign policy disasters or corruption in the current administration will rear their ugly head.
Eventually, the public will tire of the hype and fear. Politicians will lose their jobs if they don't return to normalcy. Normalcy is not dependent on public adherence to lockdown rules (particularly stupid mask mandates, closure of "non-essential" business, cancellation of or restrictions on public gatherings, etc.), but people's tolerance of heavy-handed and unconstitutional restrictions.
Things will change.
- David P. Jordan
For a long time now, you've provided a lot of much-appreciated, thoroughly researched, highly insightful, well measured, and mostly politically neutral analysis of local transportation topics. I think that's why this article is so disappointing. You've taken a hard right turn on the subject of the virus' social impact. Hard. Right. Turn. Nobody is thrilled about the past year and, inherently, any discussion about transportation is going to be sprinkled with politics because politics directly affect transportation policy. The problem is that this article is so saturated with political opinion that it overwhelms any facts you present or points you were trying to make. That's not your lane, brother.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading. It is okay to disagree.
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