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SOUTH BEND — Dana Sandoval of Cassopolis worries that her flight will be canceled and she will be stuck in one of the many towns she connects to fly from South Bend when she travels twice a year to stop at her husband’s circle of relatives in Guatemala.
It has gotten stuck in Chicago and Houston in recent years due to delays and canceled flights. So when he looked for flight costs last month, he took the South Shore exercise and flew nonstop from Chicago not only to save money, but also to ease his worries.
“It’s a procedure though,” he said of his flight to Chicago.
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Sandoval is rarely the only one facing fewer and more expensive flight options. While demand has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the aviation industry has struggled to keep up. As of July 18, South Bend International Airport had 6459 scheduled flights this year. , up from 8,619 at the same time in 2019, which can create more headaches in case of occasional delays and cancellations.
The numbers constitute a national shortage of hard work, said Mike Daigle, the airport’s chief executive, but locally, the airport survives by wasting any of its destinations and maintaining solid jobs at the airport itself.
The decline in the number of scheduled flights this year is the result of a national crew shortage, a challenge that may take years to resolve, as domestic airlines laid off thousands of pilots and flight attendants. pandemic. As travel resumed, not enough frontline staff were hired to keep pace.
So far in 2022, there have been 25% fewer scheduled flights departing from the airport through July 18, 2019, according to information provided to The Tribune via FlightAware. Nationally, scheduled flights were reduced by 14% in 2022 before the COVID-19 pandemic. .
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Jeff Rea, president of the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce, said there is a fear that when there are only a limited number of people to fly planes, they will take the busiest routes.
“In fact, South Bend has some busy roads, but not the busy roads that some airports have,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Authority said South Bend International is the 143rd busiest airport in 2021, with 341,343 passengers boarding a plane.
This summer, South Bend International Airport experienced days when the number of passengers arriving at the facility exceeded one hundred percent of the expected daily “normal,” indicating an increase not seen since before the pandemic.
“We are ahead of summer 2021,” Daigle said. We’ve noticed in the last five or six weeks a slight slowdown, and that goes back, I think, to the availability of equipment. “
Airport delays remained close to pre-pandemic rates of 17% of delayed flights in 2019, with a cumulative of just 3% in 2022. Meanwhile, cancellations decreased from 2. 7% to 2. 6%.
Many of the local delays and cancellations are the result of delays at major hubs connecting to South Bend, Daigle said. Cancellations have been higher this summer, as there are fewer flights scheduled to locate travelers.
“People who can be relocated on flights later in the day will be accommodated through airline staff,” Daigle said. “But there are rarely enough seats. “
Delta and United Airlines, two South Bend airlines, have cut one hundred and 50 daily flights nationwide, respectively, the summer season.
As equipment availability turned disastrous, airlines began to pull out of some markets altogether– anything Daigle wasn’t afraid of would happen to any of the 4 airlines operating in South Bend.
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“When we take a look at (airlines’) cargo points, how many seats on the plane other people have seated compared to empty seats. They’re doing very, very well in South Bend,” he said. I don’t think there’s any indication or procedural idea for any of them to leave our market. “
American Airlines, another airline at the airport, is expected to end service to four regional cities on Sept. 1, leading to a shortage of regional pilots. American will continue to offer flights from South Bfinish to Dallas/Fort Worth and Charlotte.
It’s unclear when airlines will get rid of equipment shortages, Daigle said, as some airlines he spoke to think the improvement is a year away, while others expect it to be much longer.
When the airport earned $7. 2 million in the federal aid budget in April 2020, most of the cash went toward paying employees’ salaries for time off and layoffs, Daigle told The Tribune.
While the airport relies on its service airlines to provide staff to operate the planes, manage baggage and manage check-in counters, South Bend International employs the airport’s public safety, operations and maintenance staff, all of whom have had to continue to manage the pandemic.
“We took care of our team members because we still had to function as an airport,” Daigle said.
While it may take years for the domestic industry to recover, South Bend schools advertise aviation jobs nationwide through the district’s Career Aviation Flight and Operations (CTE) program.
The two-year CTE course partners with the airport to provide practical information to South Bend International and prepares the school’s top graduates for a number of roles in aviation, adding aircraft regulators, flight attendants and floor operations officers. Students also earn up to 20 double credits through Ivy Tech that can be developed in postsecondary education.
Just entering its third year, CTE Aviation has graduated two fellows and currently has 20 to 25 fellows enrolled, said CTE Director Amanda Russell. South Bend airport.
“We’re very community-based and we know there’s a shortage of pilots and there has been for some time,” Russell said, noting that the program takes the economic effect of staffing the regional airport very seriously.
While installing a pilot is an option that is included in the program, Russell says, it also applies to lesser-known jobs.
Sarah and Ricky Herrera of Dallas flew to South Bend last July to make a stopover at relatives’ home in Michigan. The circle of relatives makes a stopover often, but they said they saw far fewer features this summer for a direct flight. And with fewer flight features, the costs were incredibly better for both of them.
“Oh, the costs have gone up a lot,” Sarah said.
But, the couple had a summer week to visit, so they had to bear the cost.
“The only time we were able to come this week,” Ricky said.
Sandoval also couldn’t decide when he left the area, as he had to go to Guatemala for his sister-in-law’s wedding. Fold.
This summer, when regional flights charge about $200 more than flying from Chicago, Sandoval must take the South Shore direction and fly in from O’Hare. Flying nonstop from O’Hare also makes Sandoval less pressured by the lack of her connecting flight.
“I’ve never had any mess (in South Bend),” he said, “it’s just that big cities are those chaos groups. I feel like everyone has a domino effect. “
Rea said one of the tactics the airport is looking for to help users cope with pop-up charges is by using the fee calculator on the airport’s website. greater comparison of charges between South Bend, Midway and O’Hare.
Sometimes the most productive monetary option is rarely flying from South Bend, Rea said, but she works with the airport to promote the local economy.
“People have a lot of other characteristics nearby,” Rea said. “But boy, the size, the comfort, the time it takes to get through the protection and be in South Bend, it’s hard to beat. “
Follow Alysa Guffey on Twitter @AlysaGuffeyNews.
This article was originally published in the South Bend Tribune: South Bend Airport Faces Domestic Crew Shortages, Fewer Flights, and More Expensive