Governor DeSantis Asking Travelers to Return to Florida Tourism

Airline travel has been devastated by the Covid-19 outbreak, but as numbers start to slowly drop, aviation leaders and governors alike are encouraging tourists to reconsider flying for their next vacation.

According to NPR, Florida governor Ron DeSantis held a roundtable at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport with executives from JetBlue and Spirit Airlines last week, and they’re emphasizing how safe air travel has been in the wake of the pandemic.

“The fact of the matter is, the airplanes have just not been vectors where you’ve seen a lot of spread of the coronavirus,” DeSantis told NPR.

While Florida initially struggled to contain the virus, the state has seen numbers decline in recent weeks. But tourists have been cautious about returning to pre-pandemic travel habits. Prior to the pandemic, the airline industry’s economic impact in Florida was estimated to be more than $175 billion on a yearly basis, according to DeSantis.

Meanwhile, Spirit Airlines Chief Operating Office John Bendoraitis doubled down on the governors safety assertions. “We’ve had zero outbreaks on Spirit, and really we’ve had zero guests come forward and say they’ve had any kind of problem onboard the aircraft.”

Airlines have enforced a mask policy, as well as enhanced sanitization process between flights. Bendoraitis added, “People should know that on an airplane, air changes every two to three minutes.”