Look to the Skies

CCIA and the importance of buying – and flying – local By: Jon Reily

Normally this space would be filled with interesting (I hope) dispatches from far-flung corners of the globe, offering recommendations and reviews of places to visit in travel destinations around the country and world. However, like many of us, I am home now, having not been on an airplane in the longest stretch in my adult life.

It’s been a strange time for us all. First and foremost, I hope that you and all of your loved ones are safe and healthy – because as we’ve all seen, everything can change virtually overnight.

“Happy New Year!” we all cheered at some point on New Year’s Eve just a few months ago, or what seems like years ago. We were looking forward to another great year for ourselves and our community. We had hope that this year would be better than the last, and the first of many more good years to come. To say it didn’t turn out that way would be to engage in reckless understatement. We have all been affected by the events of the past few months. The world we live in will likely never be what it was in the previous decade even as we begin to emerge and define our “new normal.” Throughout all of this, however, we have come together as a community and shown, as we always do during times of adversity, just what “Coastal Bend Strong” means.

And even though our lives are different and focused at home, it doesn’t mean we aren’t looking to the skies and thinking of the future. What that means for travel by air is still being defined day to day, but we do have some ideas. One of the recurring themes is the importance of starting local from your Corpus Christi International Airport (CCIA).

While every business was affected by COVID-19, commercial aviation has been turned upside-down. Travel bans internationally and recommendations domestically brought air travel to a virtual halt. Airlines cut schedules by up to 90 percent as they moved to create a safe environment for their staff and passengers.

They have slowly started bringing planes back online as demand increases. Many safety measures were brought to the forefront – social distancing in terminals, cleaning and disinfecting terminals, blocking middle seats and making hand sanitizer available everywhere. The airlines have instituted daily health checks for their employees to ensure that the people you deal with as you move through your journey are safe and healthy.

As someone who travels for a living, I have seen hundreds of airports around the world. While I’m currently grounded, like many business travelers, when I do return to the air, I know that I will continue to use our CCIA as my entry point to the air system.

In some ways, it will be for the same reasons: convenience, proximity, friendliness and ease of use. However, there will be new reasons now: lack of crowds, short security and boarding lanes, wide spaces for waiting when it’s called for and knowing that CCIA is part of my community and looking out for me, not only as a traveler, but also as a fellow Corpus Christian.

As we consider our own health and well-being, we must also consider the health of our community and how important it is to “buy local” – or, as I like to call it, “buy local, fly local.” The same reasons you chose to fly from your hometown airport are still there, and many of them have new and more valuable meaning now. No one can predict the future in terms of where air travel will go. When you personally feel safe enough to take to the skies again, CCIA will be there and ready for you.

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