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Demand for charter flights soars amid pandemic
Ken Suarez reports
LAKELAND, Fla. - While many businesses struggle to just stay open during the pandemic, one at Lakeland Linder International Airport says it is taking off.
About a year after Ellliot Mintzer bought TRYP Charter Air, COVID-19 hit.
"Our reservations went from 15 to 20 a day to nothing," he told FOX 13.
Last March, flights were grounded to try and stop the virus from spreading.
"April, May we did nothing," Mintzer explained. "Nobody went anywhere."
But when the skies re-opened last summer, the calls started to come back.
"It went from crickets to a few phone calls a day, to maybe a dozen a day," said Mintzer.
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Now he is getting even more, in part because some people who used to fly commercially, especially business people, are opting for charters to socially distance. Right now, TRYP Charter Air has one plane but is looking for a second.
"And if the demand keeps growing, we’ll bring on a third," said Mintzer. "We’ll do what the market tells us to do."
And the market for charter flights, even during a pandemic, according to Mintzer, is doing very well.
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