Part 2: The Sound of Silence

Click here for Part 1: How PIT Survived the Pandemic

April 2020

PIT Passenger Volume: 32,447, down from 805,299 in April 2019

And just when it seemed that things couldn’t get worse, April arrived. The aviation industry hit bottom; passenger volumes at Pittsburgh International are down 96 percent from the prior year.

Help is on the way. In late March, Congress passes a $2 trillion stimulus package that provides $25 billion to passenger air carriers and another $10 billion in grants to airports.

Cassotis continues weekly conference calls with staff. “We’re open for business,” she tells them. “We are open for people who have to travel, for cargo planes carrying PPE, for our military. We will stay open no matter what.”

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By April 9, more than 2,200 aircraft—about 35 percent of U.S. airlines’ fleets—sit idle. The flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows that, in the past month, airlines experienced a roughly 70 percent decrease in the number of daily commercial flight operations worldwide.

April 12

The normal sights and sounds of the nation’s airports, much like the streets in the cities they serve, are replaced by vacant concourses and an eerie silence.

PIT looks for ways to reduce operating costs. Select people movers, elevators and escalators are shut down, along with the entirety of Concourse C. Bicycle racks block the entrances to some restrooms to save on cleaning, sewage and electrical costs.

The long-term and extended-term parking lots, one of the airport’s biggest sources of revenue, are closed to new customers. (Returning customers can still exit). The remaining flyers are treated to an $8/daily parking fee for the spaces nearest the terminals.

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‘Pittsburgh being Pittsburgh’

April 22

With acres of empty parking lot space, the airport leans on its culture of innovation and comes up with a novel idea. Soon, volunteers are loading more than 1,600 boxes of food into hundreds of cars as part of one of the region’s largest-ever food distribution events, a first for the facility and a prominent example of the Authority’s mission to serve the community.

Staff from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, assisted by