By Mike Sunnucks | Rose Law Group Reporter
COVID-19 curtailed travel and tourism so much that Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport saw its daily passenger counts go down to 10,000 to 12,000 per day, according Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher.
Sky Harbor typically averages more than 125,000 passengers per day.
Ironically, the days Sky Harbor Airport was at just 12,000 passengers also made it the busiest airport in America, Zuercher said during a virtual forum hosted Monday by Valley Partnership.
“On a couple of those days, we were the busiest airport in the country,” Zuercher said.
Sky Harbor saw 282,243 passengers in April down 92.8 percent from April 2019 when the airport hosted almost 4 million passengers.
The city of Phoenix owns and manages Sky Harbor.
Zuercher said Phoenix continues to navigate the impacts of COVID-19 and the George Floyd / Black Lives Matter protests.
The city has received $540 million in federal aid to help to respond to COVID-19 and its hits on jobs and tax revenue especially from tourism and business travel.
