Quiet amid chaos: US airports show impact of coronavirus, Europe travel ban

A day after the coronavirus outbreak reached global pandemic status and U.S. officials moved to limit travel from Europe, the nation's airports showed the impact, with few people in empty terminals.

Boston's Logan International, New York's JFK International and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International were all quiet midday Thursday when they should have been brimming with travelers. Those few who were there had adjusted to a different reality: Some had scrambled to get back from Europe while they could, while others decided to scrap their trips abroad. A few passengers wore face masks.

At Atlanta's airport, the world's busiest, the international terminal was nearly deserted with only a handful of travelers checking in and walking through the TSA checkpoint.

Louise Willerslev-Olsen said she spent Thursday morning scrambling to book a flight home to Denmark after family members called overnight to alert her of the travel ban.

Willerslev-Olsen, who was visiting Rome, Georgia, for a wheelchair tennis tournament, ended up paying $2,500 for a 6 p.m. flight on Lufthansa Airlines.

She said the high-priced flight with a layover in Frankfurt, Germany, was worth not being stranded in the United States.

“I’ll be relieved once the plane takes off," she said. "This has been stressful.”

Tameka and George Blessett, of Atlanta, were not letting the coronavirus stop their planned vacation to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a friend’s birthday.

Tameka Blessett said they were leaving the trip “in God’s hands.” The couple said they packed hand sanitizer and wipes to disinfect their seats and were confident the airlines were doing everything to keep passengers safe.

“Of course, there is fear,” George Blessett said. “But I can’t stop living my life.”

Mazie Williams was headed home to Toronto after visiting family in the Atlanta area for two weeks.

Williams said she was thankful her flight was already scheduled for Thursday. Still, she feared the chance of flying on the plane with someone who has the coronavirus.

“I’m nervous, I’m scared, all those words,” Williams said. “I’m getting into panic mode because this thing is getting worse.”

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic as the coronavirus continued to spread in Europe and the United States. Late Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation restricting entry to the United States of noncitizens from virtually all of Europe.

Following Trump's announcement, the State Department advised Americans to reconsider any travel abroad, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans to avoid nonessential travel to 29 European countries and principalities.

'I've never seen this place so empty'

Boston’s international terminal was mostly empty around noon Thursday. But some of the few travelers there felt the new restrictions.

Thomas Zürcher, 49, a Boston chef who moved from Switzerland a year ago, and his wife Cornelia Weber, a 39-year-old HR professional, learned Thursday they wouldn’t be able to fly back to their home country for a planned two-week trip to visit family.

“I’m not very excited about President Trump’s decision, but unfortunately that’s the way it is, right?” Zürcher said. “We are healthy and in good condition, so we don’t want to complain about that. But we cannot go on vacation now because we can’t visit our family in Europe and Switzerland.”

Faced with the possibility of getting stuck there, he said, “We decided to not gamble and go home.”

He said the hotline for the airline, Germany-based Lufthansa, is backed up, so the couple came to the terminal to get their refund and postpone the flight. “Right now, there is no information,” he said.

Jimmy Arevalo, 21, a student at University of Massachusetts-Boston, who works at a children’s hospital, had his suitcases packed to go to England to meet up with friends when he learned of the ban Thursday morning.

The United Kingdom is not affected by the ban, but Arevalo said he didn’t want to risk struggling to get back.

“I’ve never seen this place so empty,” he said, looking around the empty airport as two women walked by wearing masks.

Yamuato Chira, 28, who has worked in Boston since August, was saying goodbye to his girlfriend who was heading back to her home in Japan. She had been in Boston for the past three months.

“Very, very worried about the coronoavirus,” he said. “Very risky.” His girlfriend has been washing her hands and said she has a mask in her bag.

The lone baggage line was for a Frontier plane going to Orlando, Florida.

Natasha Cosma, 24, was getting bags checked to head back to Orlando, her home, after a short vacation in Boston with her husband. She said they took extra precautions on their way north.

“So, we have our hand sanitizer on us," she said. "And of course, washing our hands is more important than anything."

Cosma said she didn't want coronavirus to stop everything she wants to do, but she did wonder about the concert tickets she booked in the coming months as cities and states begin to cancel large gatherings.

“I have tickets to a bunch of concerts this year. Ironically, the year I have my plans together is the year where it seems like the world is falling apart,” she said.

Contributing: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus travel ban: JFK airport, Atlanta, Boston show impact