PEORIA, Ill. — Following Friday’s announcement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fully vaccinated people can travel with little to no risk, Peoria Airports Director Gene Olson sounded off on what it means on a local level.
“The key for us is going to be the resumption of business travel. We don’t actually know the purpose of somebody’s trip because you have to do a survey to find that out and that’s expensive and difficult,” Olson said.
“We can kind of infer from which airlines are flying and which airplanes are full leisure travel has been what has carried us through the pandemic so far, and so getting business back in the air is going to be critical for things to come back to normal and for our normal frequencies and normal destinations to come back.
“I think it’s a great first step. I think the majority of people who have been vaccinated so far are those who are older and maybe don’t travel as much.”
The CDC’s new guidelines say fully vaccinated people who travel don’t need to take a COVID-19 test before or after their trip, but Olson said unlike some other airports, General Wayne A. Downing International Airport has not been taking temperature checks or anything of the sort, because temperature checks aren’t necessarily indicators of whether or not a person has the virus.
Thus, Olson said the lowered restrictions won’t change the airport’s current daily system of operations.
“People still have been traveling. We’re under a security directive from the Transportation Security Administration everyone has to wear a mask, even just walking around the airport,” he said.
“I don’t see that lifting anytime soon, because the guidance I’ve seen says even if you’re vaccinated, you still need to keep your mask on, so I don’t think it really changes anything for us.”
