DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Des Moines International Airport is seeing a slow increase in passengers, with twice as many as came through the terminal in May.
"For June, we had just shy of 64,000 passengers coming through. That's a mere 24 percent of what we saw in June of 2019" says Airport spokesperson Kayla Kovarna.
She says while June's passenger numbers are low, they're better than April's 96 percent loss in the first full month of COVID-19 shut-downs in the U.S.
Kovarna says the airport's hoping to continue the slow rebound in passenger numbers with the current run of cheap flights.
"We're going to see probably some pretty good fare deals, especially when we look at some of those low-cost carriers like Allegiant--they have some great fares right now" she says.
Kovarna says it could take years before passenger numbers get back to levels before COIVD-19.
"We're hoping that by 2023 we would be back to those 2019 numbers" she says.
Kovarna says while the airport has stepped up it's cleaning and sanitation procedures, passengers also have to do their part by wearing face masks, using hand sanitizer stations, and social distancing in the terminal as much as possible.