Just 2,500 passengers per day are going through Seattle Tacoma Airport

At last count, just 2,500 passengers are trickling through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) on a daily basis — a tiny fraction of what the airport would normally be seeing now.

On Thursday, SEA revealed in a press release the latest passenger volumes being experienced. Official data will be available in the third week of May.

This amounts to roughly just 5% of SEA’s usual passenger traffic volumes of over 50,000 per day.

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The entire commercial global aviation sector has been impacted by the escalating pandemic, with national governments enforcing travel restrictions, and airlines severely cutting back on their capacities and routes to mitigate some of their steep financial losses.

Total passengers for the month of March through SEA came to 1,824,676 compared to 4,111,729 passengers during March 2019 — a 55.6% decrease in overall passengers.

International passenger traffic dropped to 183,528, a decrease of 59%, as 321 international departures were canceled during the month. This compares to 446,530 international passengers in March 2019.

With SEA running well below its capacity, the authority already announced it has shut down more than two-thirds of the dining and retail tenants and has shifted their focus towards air cargo and workforce development programs.

SEA is also urging that only essential travelers or workers come to the airport at this time.

With files from Kenneth Chan.