Just over a week ago I made the decision to travel during the coronavirus pandemic. The decision to fly was one that I did not take lightly. I didn’t just wake up one day and decide that it was finally time to fly for fun. Instead, after several weeks of self-isolation, I needed to fly to New York to be with my girlfriend, where I would stay for the foreseeable future.
Booking the flight to New York was a bit odd compared to pre-coronavirus times. In the past there were nonstop flights between Chicago and New York about every hour. When I booked, there were only a few nonstop flights offered throughout the day. Also, each of the flights I checked was nearly empty. I couldn’t believe how many empty seats I saw on what’s normally the busiest route in the US.
When booking my flight to New York I decided to wait until the last minute to book. I did this because I wanted to evaluate load factors before booking. The last thing I wanted was to book a mostly full flight if an empty flight was available. The next morning I woke up early, put on my mask, and called an Uber to the airport.
Arriving At Chicago O’Hare Airport
The Uber ride from Chicago proper to O’Hare was an absolute pleasure. Typically traffic to O’Hare is a jammed nightmare, but this time, the roads were nearly empty. It took just 30 minutes to get from my apartment to O’Hare, a journey that normally takes about an hour.
When I arrived at the airport it was easy to notice that things were not business as usual. The airport seemed empty and several passengers and airport staff were wearing face masks. Even so, the airport wasn’t a ghost town. Instead, it was a similar experience to arriving at the airport very early on Saturday morning. Not empty, but definitely not crowded.
Not surprisingly the lines for the TSA Checkpoints were empty. There was no wait for standard security checkpoints or TSA PreCheck checkpoints. As I approached the TSA podium I noticed a fairly significant change. TSA podiums now I have large plexiglass shields for TSA agents to sit behind. However, as before, you still hand your documents to the agent who checks them and hands them back to you.
Security took just a few moments after which I arrived in the main departure hall in Terminal 3. As I excited the security checkpoint I checked the flight information monitors for my departure gate information where I noticed my second significant change.
A Very Quiet Chicago O’Hare International Airport
When I looked up at the departure boards I noticed several canceled flights. This was a bit of a surprise since the weather in Chicago was completely fine.
Even so, I couldn’t believe just how many flights were still departing on the day I traveled. There were flights to Columbia, MO, Flint, Fargo, and Kalamazoo. However, there were virtually no flights abroad.
What you might notice from the above departure board is that most of the flights departing the day I flew were to smaller cities. Since most of those flights depart from the L or G gates at O’Hare, this meant the H/K hall was mostly empty. As I walked down the famous hall of flags to my departure gate I couldn’t recall a time I’ve seen the hall so empty.
When I reached the end and looked back toward security, I was one of less than 10 in the terminal.
As I looked over toward the K gates there were even fewer passengers. Then as I crossed the hall toward the H gates I finally noticed just how quiet the airport was. When I looked out at the airport there were no planes sitting at K gates.
It seems the airport ground staff decided that the lack of activity proved a great time to perform some maintenance in the gate areas.
Departing O’Hare
The H Gates weren’t much busier, but for whatever reason, most of the flights departure were from H Gates.
In fact, I couldn’t believe how crowded the gate area was for a flight to Charlotte. Even more surprising was that even in a pandemic there was no shortage of gate lice. Although the entire hall was empty, passengers still managed to crow the departure gate prior to boarding. I guess some things will never change.
The morning of my flight I remained #1 on the upgrade list. Shortly before boarding began, the gate agent called my name to see if I wanted an upgrade. She notified me that I currently had a completely empty row to myself and that there was only one seat left in First. She asked if I wanted to stay where I was or if I wanted the upgrade. Ultimately, I decided to stay put.
Boarding began exactly on time and moved extremely quickly. Everyone was seated and ready to go about 20 minutes before our scheduled departure time. In fact, our flight pushed back about 10minutes earlier than expected.
The Flight To New York
Overall, the flight to New York was uneventful. I had the entire row to myself on a very clean Airbus A319. Most everyone wore masks on the flight and remained seated for the duration of the relatively short flight. There was no formal drink service, but beverages were available upon request. If I’m being honest, about halfway through the flight I forgot that I was flying during a pandemic with a mask on my face.
Arriving In New York
Until we touched down in New York things didn’t seem all that out of the ordinary. However, when we poured out into the empty terminal at LaGuardia things seemed completely different. The halls of LaGuardia were empty. There were no crowds. I have never seen LaGuardia empty and it was jarring.
That trend continued as I made my way to the baggage claim area and out to curbside passenger pickup. When I reached the cub there was no traffic jam. Instead, there were only 10-15 cars waiting to pick up passengers. There was no honking, no yelling, no whistling. It was like arriving at a small regional airport, which LaGuardia certainly isn’t.
Final Thoughts
Overall, flying during the COVID-19 pandemic was not much different than flying in pre-coronavirus times. Flying during the pandemic was like flying on the least busy travel day of the year… with a mask on your face.
I felt plenty safe with a mask on my face and Clorox wipes in my bag. When I arrived at my seat I wiped down any high-touch surfaces with the wipes and made sure not to touch my face at any point. I also wiped down my phone before and after the flight as a precaution.
Additionally, after flying I’ve started a second round of extreme self-isolation at home. I’ve limited going outside and have avoided going out in public. I know that by flying I could have exposed myself to the virus and don’t want to risk passing it on to others. If I decide to fly again in the coming weeks or moths, I’ll make sure to do the same following any additional flights. My only hope is that others are doing the same.
