Charlotte skyline is shown in February 2018. Photo by Jay Selman
Like most U.S. airports, Charlotte Douglas International expects Memorial Day traffic to be the heaviest since the pandemic began.
But two things differ at Charlotte Douglas. First, it is the only hub where American Airlines has grown capacity in 2021. “CLT domestic seat capacity for summer 2021 will grow 1% versus summer 2019, the only hub in the AA network with (year over year) domestic growth,” said airline spokesman Andrew Trull.
Secondly, at an airport media conference Tuesday, two top airport officials issued pleas for job applicants. Pre-holiday media conferences are typical at major airports, but they are rarely forums for job applicant solicitations.
The pleas seemed to embody the plight of today’s airline industry: After a dramatic decline in 2020, traffic – mostly leisure traffic – is surging this summer. But sectors of the infrastructure – the workforce and the rental car fleet, for example – cannot recover quickly enough.
The problem is probably less acute at Charlotte than elsewhere, because throughout the pandemic American focused on two airports – Charlotte and Dallas – and kept domestic schedules reasonably close to pre-pandemic levels.
One result: During 2020, Charlotte rose from the country’s 11th busiest passenger airport to sixth. Among the top 15 U.S. airports, Charlotte showed the smallest percentage decline in passenger count, falling 46% to 27.2 million, according to Airports Council International statistics.
Friday will be the weekend’s busiest travel day, with about 26,000 locally originating passengers, said Jack Christine, airport chief operating officer. That is the highest local traffic since the 2019 Christmas holiday travel season, when the daily number reached as high as about 38,000. Additionally, CLT sees about 100,000 connecting passengers on busy travel days, up from about 60,000 on normal days.
“We have more people coming here this summer than in 2019,” Christine said. He said passenger “wait times may be longer” because of a shortage of employees, adding “We are struggling like everyone else to find employees.”
The airport and its concessionaires, airlines, and contractors are seeking employees. “I encourage anyone who’s looking for employment to look at the airport as an option,” Christine said, referring applicants to the “careers” section under “business” on the airport website.
Kevin Frederick, TSA federal security director for Western North Carolina, said, the agency is “aggressively hiring” workers, with 6,000 nationwide job openings including 85 in Charlotte. “It’s a good opportunity to serve your country,” he said, referring applicants to the TSA website.
Like Christine, Frederick reminded that masks are required at the airport. He said TSA has had minimal issues with non-maskers at Charlotte, where “We have very respectful and courteous passengers.”
This summer, American’s single daily London Heathrow flight is the only transatlantic flight from Charlotte, with no additions planned in 2021. Russ Fortson, American managing director of customer care, said American will operate about 660 daily Charlotte departures this summer, down minimally from about 689 in the summer of 2019. Although the number of departures is down slightly, the flights that remain are on bigger aircraft.
Fortson said CLT has 17 new routes, including Honolulu; Jackson, Wyo.; Kalispel, Mont. and Samana, Dominican Republic. Honolulu appears to be doing surprisingly well: It will continue through January, rather than through end of summer, as originally planned.
It’s not clear whether Charlotte can remain a top ten U.S. airport, in terms of the number of passengers. As other airports rebuild international service, Charlotte could slip back to eleventh, given its smaller international share. However, American has permanently increased its focus on Charlotte and Dallas. “As we come out of this, it will be interesting see how demand rebuilds,” Christine said. “We will be part of it.”
Looking ahead, the airport expects to expand new Terminal A in 2024, adding ten gates. Delta would move to new Terminal A, opening gates for American in old Terminal A. Also, a fourth parallel runway is expected to open in 2027.
