Two of the region’s main economic engines, the Wilmington International Airport and the Port of Wilmington, have seen significant impacts from the coronavirus.
 
Julie Wilsey and Paul Cozza, who head the airport and port, speaks on BizTalk on how their organizations are handling the numerous health and business issues.
 
From Julie Wilsey, Wilmington International Airport director:
Passenger traffic is down significantly at the airport, Wilsey said.
 
“Our passengers and our parking customers are down to 20%, so we’re down by almost 80%, so the activity is extremely low yet we continue to run the full operation. We’re still open 24 hours a day,” she said.
 
Airlines are adjusting their schedules on a day-to-day basis. ILM officials find out in the morning about schedule cancellations.
 
The airport is doing heavy cleaning three times a day and sanitizer stations have tripled in response to how to respond to travelers who might have the coronavirus.
 
From Paul Cozza, executive director of N.C. State Ports Authority:
“We saw this coming about five weeks ago when China was in the heart of the crisis,” Cozza said about the expected drop in cargo traffic.
 
He said this week is when the North Carolina ports are seeing the effects of that slowdown.
Reports that manufacturing is starting again in China with plans to resume moving cargo is good, Cozza said.
 
Both spoke on how the facilities are responding to staffing and projections of what might be coming next for transportation operations, especially with long-term economic impacts.
 
See the full conversation below.
 
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