WINNIPEG -- The Winnipeg Airports Authority (WAA) released its numbers from the second quarter of 2020 and it shows that passenger traffic has tanked because of the pandemic.

It said travel fell by 95 per cent compared to 2019 and that were fewer than 56,000 travellers compared to 1.1 million in the same period last year.

"From April to June, the drastic drop in passenger traffic came as result of the requirement for anyone entering Manitoba to self-isolate for 14 days," the WAA said in a news release, adding it was also impacted by the border closure between Canada and the U.S. and people being encouraged to stay home.

The WAA said the worst day for travel to Winnipeg was April 11, when only 59 passengers left Winnipeg Richardson International Airport.

“The sharp drop in traffic has been felt at airports around the world and Winnipeg has not been immune. This will be a slow recovery taking years to return to 2019 levels. WAA is focused on taking the right steps today to mitigate the impact while keeping the company and airport sustainable in the future,” said Barry Rempel, who is the president and CEO of the WAA, in a news release.

Due to the low traveller volume, the airport has also felt the financial impact as the WAA consolidated revenue for the second quarter was $11.6 million, compared to 2019, when it made $33.5 million.

Tyler MacAfee with the WAA said even with the decreased revenue, the airport needs to keep running.

"So whether it is one flight an hour or one flight every five minutes, the runway still has to be open. Certainly, in March it had to be plowed. It still has to be operational," he said.

MacAfee added that the WAA worked on ways to save money, whether it be postponing projects or closing down certain terminals that used a lot of energy.

MacAfee also said they took a look at their staffing level.

"The recognition we have now, the realization is that it is going to take four to five years to get back to where we were as an airport, so we don't need the same size company anymore. So we went through a process where we laid off a number of staff as well to try to get to that bottom line."

Despite the low traveller numbers, the WAA said cargo plane landings increased this year, jumping by 2.1 per cent compared to 2019. It also said that more international cargo flights landed in Winnipeg to move medical supplies and personal protective equipment.

STARTING TO COME BACK

MacAfee said the numbers in the second quarter were not good at all, but they are starting to see an uptick in travellers once again.

"Today we are probably at about 85 per cent of a drop. So we are at about 15 per cent of where we were last year," he said, but reiterated that it will take many years to get back to normal.

MacAfee said the current challenge is trying to run the airport in this climate, even with more travelers coming in.

"We are really looking at what we can be doing differently? How can we innovate our processes, our systems, even our company, to better handle the new reality," he said.

He added the WAA is looking at everything from new cleaning procedures to realigning roles in the company.