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Economy

Traffic Recovering at QC Airport

Leisure travelers may be the reason traffic at the Quad City International Airport continues to recover. After dropping to just 2,700 total passengers in April, it's increased steadily, and reached 22,000 in July.

Airport spokeswoman Ashleigh Johnston says traffic has picked up for Allegiant Air more than Delta, United, and American.

"As people are remaining at home or doing partially remote work, maybe business meetings that you would have flown out for they're just doing virtually. We haven't seen the business traveler come back quite as quick but there have been a lot of really low air fares for some of those more leisure destinations."

Even though traffic was eight times greater in July than in April, it was still just one-third of the total for July of last year.

Johnston says traffic usually stabilizes or even goes down when schools re-open in September and October, and then rises at the end of the year. This year though, it's very hard to predict what might happen. 

This week, the Quad City Airport received a federal grant of 305,000 dollars to help preserve jobs, and that should mean no need for furloughs or layoffs well into next year. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.