HYANNIS — Every Monday since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, Barnstable Municipal Airport manager Katie Servis goes over her budget and looks at what needs to be cut.
"I'm going to have to adjust every week," she said.
So far, she has trimmed about $2.5 million out of the $8 million fiscal 2021 budget.
Such is the life for an airport manager in the time of COVID-19.
Air travel has largely been grounded for the past month, and things have been no different locally.
At the Barnstable airport, flight schedules have been reduced and the number of passengers has declined. Southern Airways was supposed to start a new route for the company this month, flying from Hyannis to Nantucket, but that has been pushed back.
"Our terminal building, it's very empty," Servis said.
But as with other parts of the economy, the aviation industry is expected to get a shot in the arm from the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act.
The Federal Aviation Administration will distribute $10 billion to airports across the country, although what will flow to the Cape and Islands is still unclear.
With the current revenue loss, the Barnstable airport has started to look at what must be done versus what can be put off. The airport plans to forge ahead with plans to replace a leaking roof on one of its buildings but will put off roadwork on Mary Dunn Way.
The Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard airports also are waiting to see how much money they will get from the federal government.
"We hope to have more information later this week, and we are hearing that funding may be distributed by the end of April," said Noah Karberg, assistant manager at Nantucket Memorial Airport.
The island airport is the second busiest in the state, and this money would give airports a fighting chance, Karberg said.
One concern for the region's airports is that the CARES Act does not take the Cape and Islands' seasonal nature into account.
About 80% of the revenue for the Nantucket airport comes between May and September.
"While other airports may be able to recover based on the strength of their annual traffic profiles, ACK does not have that benefit," Karberg said, referring to the airport by its three-letter code. "It's not a criticism of the CARES Act, it's just the reality for many summer seasonal airports, which may have to take extraordinary efforts to mount a recovery."
The funding for airports will go through a formula that is used annually for grant money. It takes the number of passengers, debt and reserves into account.
Local airlines also are trying to weather the pandemic. Some tenants at the Barnstable airport have asked for rent relief. Servis declined to say which of the approximate 45 tenants had made the request.
Cape Air, the largest local airline, submitted an application last week for CARES Act funds but had no update on its status by Thursday.
In mid-March, CEO Daniel Wolf said the company had seen a noticeable decline in bookings, but he was optimistic for its long-term future.
Local aviation professionals do not know when things will get back to normal.
The Barnstable airport already had been seeing declines in ridership for more than a decade. Staff members had been working to coax customers back, but the pandemic has brought the revitalization efforts to a halt.
"This is going to set us back," Servis said.
Follow Ethan Genter on Twitter: @EthanGenterCCT.
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