TOLEDO, Ohio — The Deltas and Southwests of the airline world are lions, but they can't function at full capacity without regional carriers. Major airlines get a lot of their customers from small airlines bringing passengers in from smaller cities. They are the cog behind the scenes tending to the bigger players.
In March, one such company, Minnesota-based Compass Airline, went out of business and had to lay off nearly 12,000 employees.
With other small airlines hemorrhaging money, I spoke to two local flight attendants early on in the pandemic about what they saw at airports. More recently, I asked them, with so few people flying nowadays, if they were concerned about losing their jobs.
Kelly is brand new to flying. She got her wings in January of this year. Even in her first few months, Kelly began noticing how the coronavirus impacts passengers on her flights.
"Someone that maybe has allergies would be looked at like a monster. I noticed that if someone coughs or sneezes, people would be afraid of them and assume they are infected. Some people walk around in a full plastic bag, while others are just washing their hands and carrying around hand sanitizers," she said.
The spread of the coronavirus is changing how regional carriers clean a plane. As a flight attendant for several years now, Amy is getting used to always wearing gloves and a mask.
"There have been new cleanliness procedures ... such as fogging the airplanes, using more sanitizer and disinfectant," she said.
Amy often observes people at airport restaurants using gloves. This is her observation: "I think they are wearing the gloves and they know that people get the visual of that."
Amy says the biggest challenge for her is the fundamental shift in serving passengers. The airline she works for eliminated most of the service on the plane. She says even when she offers something to a passenger, that person will refuse the service out of fear of the coronavirus.
She adds, "but there's a dichotomy there because some passengers have been upset that our level of service isn't what it has always been."
Fast forward nearly three weeks and Kelly and Amy approach their fields differently now. Nobody is flying, flights are getting canceled, and they can't bid on shifts. Without shifts, many flight attendants struggle to make ends meet.
In fact, Amy just took a voluntary leave of absence from her job. She'll get the same benefits without the pay. She says this is the best way to keep her job going forward. This luxury doesn't exist for Kelly as a new flight attendant.
"Yes, I am concerned that after all of this I will not have a job for awhile. But I'm confident that it won't be forever if that does happen," said Kelly.
That's how quick a pandemic can change things, where everyone's future is woven together.
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NEWS OF THE DAY
- The number of cases in Ohio jump by 693 to 9,107 as Gov. Mike DeWine moves ahead with plans to open parts of the state on May 1.
- Michigan surpasses 30,000 infections and 2,200 deaths.
- Prominent Toledo and Coingate figure Tom Noe has prison sentence commuted by Governor DeWine.
- Millions of Americans get stimulus checks from the government. Most taxpayers will receive $1,200.