Most holiday seasons, Buffalo Niagara International Airport and Niagara Falls International Airport would be swirling with activity, with cars arriving and departing, suitcases being rushed around, crowds checking departure and arrival times on airport monitors. Most years, about 8,000 people are departing each day. This year, that number is down to 1,700.
"If you’ve been to the airport lately, it really is so different and it’s almost eerie," said NFTA Spokesperson Helen Tederous.
"We talk about the airport is such a happy place, people going on destinations. People coming back. A lot of hugging. It’s definitely different with social distancing."
Another big difference, Tederous point out, is the closed border which has put an end to the crowds of Canadians using Niagara Falls International Airport and Buffalo Niagara International for cheap flights to Florida and other warm destinations.
Life for airport employees has also changed. Shuttle bus drivers, for example, have little business moving passengers from the parking lot to the terminal. Airport restaurants, Tederous says, "are open sporadically but not the same as they once were. So we do have some of our restaurants open at the times when more travelers are coming in and they are very mindful of when the flights come in and out."
