Southwest Airlines filled just 6 percent of its seats in April and doesn’t expect the figure to inch up past 10 percent in May.
“The traffic levels are next to zero at this point,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in an interview on CNBC Tuesday.
So what will it take for passengers to return amid the coronavirus pandemic?
Travel attraction reopenings and new safety measures at the airport and on airplanes, Kelly said.
“I think a lot of things are going to have to happen for the country to come back to life, much less air travel,” he said in an interview following the airline’s first quarter earnings report. “We and the federal government have a role to play in this.”
If people are going to travel again, Kelly said, “They need to have something to be able to do when they get there. So Disney World needs to open back up. Restaurants need to open back up.”
For the full story, visit USAToday.com/Travel.
