Flyers are fewer at RDU, but love, work still bring a few to fly

With people across the country hunkering down at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus, air travel has plummeted. At Raleigh-Durham International Airport, passenger traffic is down 95 percent compared to the same period last year. With fewer travelers, airlines are offering fewer flights.

But there are still a few stalwart souls who must take a trip. They are greeted with quick security lines, plenty of parking and wide open concourses.

Anne Moses came to the Triangle to visit her son and his family, and she has been trying to get home to Syracuse for a week.

"Well, flights have been canceled on me," she said. "I came down on March 16. I was supposed to go back on the 31st. I have cats at home that I have to take care of, and obligations and rent to pay."

She was mostly alone in the terminal for takeoff on Wednesday.

"It's a little scary because I'm used to airports being full," she said.

At the Delta check-in counter, Josfine Rysjo was heading home to Sweden.

"You can be here like 10 minutes before your flight because there's no one here," she said.

A work project brought her to Raleigh, but it's been put on hold by the pandemic.

"I was supposed to be here for six months," she said. "Now we're putting a pause on it and hopefully get started in the fall when everything has died down a bit."

Shelby Manus lives in San Diego, but after she was laid off from the restaurant business, she decided a trip was in order.

"I got laid off like a month ago, and I have like a bunch of free time, and I never get to see my family, and ticket prices were super-cheap here, so I booked a ticket to see my family," she said.

Another traveler, who didn't want to give her name, was headed to New Hampshire to spend the weekend with her husband, who works in construction. Their anniversary is this weekend.

"With this quarantine thing, I really need to be with a rock right now, so I have to get up there now while I'm in furlough," she said.

The social distance in evidence at that airport is especially jarring, coming as it does after a record year for RDU. In 2019, 14.2 million passengers flew through, an increase of 11 percent over 2018.