SAN JOSE — Airports in the Bay Area and Monterey County are in line for nearly $380 million in federal assistance to help keep the travel hubs aloft during the economic tempest unleashed by the coronavirus.
The money for the local airports is being made available through a $10 billion program within the CARES Act signed into law by President Donald Trump in late March and is designed to bolster airports that are being buffeted by the coronavirus fallout.
Passenger volumes at airports worldwide have imploded due to the collapse in air traffic. Airlines have chopped flights and some have halted service altogether to certain large cities.
At San Jose International Airport, passenger traffic has virtually vanished, according to unofficial statistics regarding the number of people who pass through the TSA checkpoints at the Silicon Valley travel hub.
During all of March, the TSA checkpoints at San Jose airport reported a 62.5 percent decrease compared with March 2019, airport officials said Tuesday.
The decline was nothing less than catastrophic at San Jose airport for the period from April 1 through April 13. Over that nearly two-week period, traffic through the TSA checkpoints was down 97.1 percent for the same period during 2019.
“This $10 billion in emergency resources will help fund the continued operations of our nation’s airports during this crisis and save workers’ jobs,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Tuesday.
In the Bay Area, $367 million in federal assistance is going to 16 airports, including the region’s three international airports. Another $12 million is going to an airport in Monterey County.
San Jose International Airport received $65.6 million, while Oakland International Airport obtained $44.7 million, according to a post on the U.S. Department of Transportation site.
The largest amount of money was sent to the normally hyper-busy San Francisco International Airport, which received $254.8 million from the federal Transportation Department.
“This funding will support continuing operations and replace lost revenue resulting from the sharp decline in passenger traffic and other airport business due to the COVID-19 public health emergency,” the Transportation Department stated.
