All is going according to plan at Monroe County’s two airports. Passengers who arrive from Connecticut, New Jersey or New York — areas with high community spread of COVID-19 — are being screened as they get off commercial flights in Key West. In Marathon, general aviation (private planes) are greeted with a printout of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order.
Monroe County Airports Director Richard Strickland said that there is a combination of airport employees, Monroe County Sheriff deputies and Department of Health employees leading the effort. In a press release, the county said passengers from those areas are directed to a separate facility and isolation area where they fill out a DOH questionnaire and have their temperature taken. Everyone is asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
“The screening and interviews are done by the Monroe County paramedics,” Strickland said.
Flights and passenger counts are down.
According to the county, at this time of year it’s normal to have 70 to 124 inbound passengers per flight. Now, that number ranges from 2 to 20. Up until recently, there were lots of passengers leaving the Keys, but that seems to be slowing, too.
“Typically, there are less than 10 passengers inbound, and only 15 to 20 people leaving. So, it has dropped off significantly,” Strickland said, “from the hundreds leaving per flight just a few weeks ago.”
Florida Keys Marathon International Airport doesn’t have commercial traffic. It serves general aviation. But a recent trip past the airport revealed there are dozens of airplanes parked on the tarmac, and probably many more in the hangars.
Strickland says that in an “abundance of caution, we’ve been doing an intercept of the general aviation flights coming out of that tri-state area. That’s been going fine.”
Marathon airport manager Michael Legere agreed, but couldn’t say exactly how many of thos planes had landed in the Middle Keys.
“We use a web application that allows us to follow aircraft that have filed plans into Marathon,” Legere said. He said he also relies on information from the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) who in turn notify airport management about flights arriving from that area.
Legere said Marathon airport traffic is down 30 to 40%.
“Local pilots continue to train, but we’ve seen an overall decrease in flight activity across the board,” he said.
Marathon Mayor Steve Cook is concerned there may be a hole in this process. He said the governor’s order of screening of commercial flight passengers should apply to private flights, too, to appropriately tackle the spread of COVID-19 from “hot spots.”
“If people have the funds and means to get away from a problem, they will take every chance they can to do so,” Cook said.
