Never in my life did I think I would see a major airport so quiet on a Friday afternoon in spring. But Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport felt like an eerie ghost town.
After our Citation X flight from Los Angeles to Scottsdale, AZ on Delta Private Jets, Augustine and I were dropped off at Phoenix Airport (PHX). We had about an hour before boarding and my goodnesses was it odd to walk through this mostly-deserted airport.
A sign at the door warned that masks were required inside, but sadly, it seemed that few people took this seriously, at least while inside the airport (unlike on the flight, where everyone wore a mask).
The check-in area for our flight was also virtually empty. Signs instructed to passengers to respect social distancing.
PHX has a food and concession area prior to security and all businesses were shut down. So weird to see everything closed on what normally would have been a bustling afternoon.
Security checkpoints and were empty and PreCheck lanes were still open. While TSA officers were wearing masks, nothing else about the security process was different.
On the other side, we looked for food. But like the other side, almost everything was closed.
Both the Escape and Centurion Lounges were closed.
And most restaurants and all bars were closed too. We found one Mexican restaurant near our gate. Great, right? On the menu were only two items: hamburgers or $15 chicken quesadillas that frankly looked worse than what you pay $3 for at Taco Bell.
So we kept walking…and walking…and walking.
There simply was almost nothing open. Finally we found a McDonalds that was open and had a hamburger and French Fries…Augustine’s first time eating at McDonalds.
We returned to our gate and waited to board our flight. Again, some travelers were wearing masks while others were not. There was no enforcement of the mask requirement. Augustine used the bathrooms (clean) and drinking fountain (still turned on).
CONCLUSION
My trip was three weeks ago. Daily passenger numbers have risen since then, but not by so much to a make a huge difference. Even as travel resumes and flights ramp up, it is still a very eerie experience to walk through an airport these days.
Can people believe we did this to ourselves for a virus that is mortal to .05% of people under the age of 50?
(CDC)
I hope humans will, for hundreds of years from now, remember the pain we caused ourselves, for nothing.
We did this to ourselves, with a 24/7 media that has profited enormously – and social media fed hysteria the likes of which the world had never experienced before.
I just hope we all learn from this.
Ensuring misery for others, is not the way to keep ourselves alive.
@Howard: how do I applaud you? You hit the nail in the head. Many viruses out there have no cure and we just learned how to live with them. Washing hands, not touching you face, …. I hear that since I was a toddler from my mom. Yes, I will wear a mask but other than that life goes on. Our media (left, center and right) is the real virus and disgrace of a lifetime.
150k dead. It could have been millions. It might still be if it turns out we prematurely re-opened. And would you be saying this if it was your wife, your daughter or your mother who was facing an excruciating death while on a ventilator?
If anything, this entire exercise has shown how little conservatives actually care about protecting life. Unless it’s one of theirs.
The two largest media companies in the country, Disney (who owns ABC) and Comcast (who owns NBC) have lost millions, maybe billions, in revenue because they also own Disney World and Universal Studios which have been closed for months and are some of their biggest revenue generators. They have not been “profiting enormously” as you claim.
Imagine if terrorists came and killed 122K people. How would you react as a “conservative?” You want to spend trillions and vast resources and incite racism because muslim extremists kill a few people every year. The worst being 9/11 that was not even a day of deaths with Covid. Yet, to ask for a simple thing like masks. Or responsibility, Or compassion for the dead to this is lost to you.
It seems, Howard, that unless your enemy is dark skinned and a different religion you decide to call it fake news. You should be ashamed.
+ 100%
Howard that is FAKE news. NOT 0.05% dead under 50 years old . If it were that, be happy. About 1,000 kids have died. A lot of problems are life long neurological and lung problems that don’t get counted in the death statistics.
Lots of adults have blood pressure controlled by pills. That puts you in the underlying conditions group and high risk. Other adults are diabetic. Some are obese. You only need one and you are high risk.
Nearly everyone knows someone with high blood pressure. You get Covid-19 but before you get symptoms, you can easily spread it. Covid is no joke.
Some who got it but didn’t die said it was, by far, the worse illness they ever had. Those were the people that didn’t go into the ICU but stayed home after seeing a doctor.
That is why people who refuse to wear masks are idiots. It’s not like governors making everyone undergo dialysis every other day or forcing people to use crutches. Just a simple mask.
=====
Oh, the little boy should be encouraged not to touch so many things, even pre-covid era.
@Howard: We, as a society, made and continue to make the best decisions based upon the information we have. Not everything is a conspiracy theory. Wear a mask, slow the spread. By the way, more than 124,000 Americans have been killed by COVID19 so far and many more would have been killed had we, as a society, not taken the steps we did. But I guess 124,000 lives (so far) means nothing to you.
Wow can’t believe how many vendors are closed. Thank goodness for McD!
Matthew, Matthew. Taco Bell is delicious!
Yes it is!
I have lost all respect. Gross. You’re probably the same people that thing In n’ Out is better than Five Guys. 🙂
Neither. Shake Shack beats both in my opinion although the best burger os the one I make at home where I buy my meats of choice at the local butcher, grind myself and make the patties at home. 🙂
Gotta admit, Shake Shack is darn good. Ok, you win. But only if I get an invite to your first bbq post Covid so I can try your home made.
Unspeakably disgusting; foul beyond description.
Can you keep your mask/face covering on through the TSA checkpoint, or do you have to take it off?
You must lower it during ID check.
@Howard
“I just hope we all learn from this.”
Sadly, you seem to have learned NOTHING.
Based on the pictures alone, I couldn’t tell if this was more about the airport or your son.
And…?
Did you read it?
I flew out of PHX last Friday. Found that you can freely walk around with alcoholic beverages in the terminal. There was a temporary beer and wine vendor set up near the D gates, Terminal 4. Enjoyed hanging out in the gate area with a beer. About the only good thing to come out of this pandemic.
As an aside, outbound to SNA was probably 3/4 full, inbound Sunday was completely full. Of course on Southwest completely full is when all aisle and widows seats are occupied as the middle seat stays open.
@Matthew: not sure your wife was happy with you introducing Augustine to McDonalds. :)))
That’s for sure!
I cringed a bit when almost every photo shows Augustine sans mask, playfully grabbing moving walkway glass, sitting on a countertop in a dining area, touching food, etc.
I know airports are cleaning more and neither of you statistically would end up very sick, But, small steps can be made at any age. Toddlers can still listen if told please don’t touch anything and for now and eat all food without bare hands (utensils or holding a napkin).
My son treats travel during “the new normal” like a game, and has a fun time watching and telling us if one of his parents are about to slip up.
I’ve traveled a few times out of necessity during the lockdown, and have never seen an airport that empty. There always seems to be a few people around even if all the food, newsstands and lounges are closed. That said, I have arrived at Dulles on the last flight or so around 2-3am, and it looked like that.
It’s a bummer about the food options. PHX, particularly in Terminals 3 and 4, did a really good job of working with local restaurants to provide an airport eating experience that’s much better than the chains on offer in most similarly sized airports. I grew up there and some of my favorite local restaurants (Barrio Cafe, Cowboy Ciao, Matt’s Big Breakfast, to name a few) have outposts there that do a remarkably good job at providing similar quality food to their non-airport originals. We’ve seen a few other airports start getting into this (notably LGA in its recent renovations) but I haven’t seen it executed quite as well or as extensively as they have in PHX.