The coronavirus pandemic has created a lot of problems for people and businesses all around the world. Owing to the pandemic, there has been an international lockdown with citizens of almost all countries throughout the world are restricted to their homes. One of the most majorly affected industries is perhaps the transport and cargo & logistics industry. This is primarily because the major airlines throughout the world have shut down their operations, at least temporarily. This has created great uncertainty amongst people who are willing to travel as well as the rest of the players in the industry. In these uncertain times when almost all businesses are facing dire circumstances, there have been talks of completely shutting down different airports since there is very little to no business being conducted these days. Not only airports suffer these days, the FLL Airport parking, for instance, is completely independent. The valet system is run by individual private companies, but if the airport shuts down even temporarily, the concerned employees of the FLL Airport parking, for instance, would also be harmed directly and indirectly.
Amid these circumstances, the Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen has also called for the suspension of all direct commercial airline traffic especially at airports specifically the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. This announcement took place back in April 2020. However, this announcement did not receive many positive reviews as many different commissioners disagreed with this idea and thus this idea was immediately shut down. The commissioners did not agree to Mark Bogen’s view that the airport should be shut down for specific hot spots like New York City and New Orleans. One of the commissioners was of the view that this is discriminatory since all cities should be treated equally because “what is a hotspot today can easily be changed and become another hot spot tomorrow”.
Hence, the talks of shutting down the Fort Lauderdale Airport were dismissed and it was agreed that such a step should not be taken by any means. Instead, the US governors and commissioners stated that think tanks should focus on other different strategies in order to cope with the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Many believe that shutting down operations would further harm the affairs of the market because many industries have already suffered enough. The FLL Airport is just not a single entity. It is directly and indirectly linked with other concerned entities and members of staff each of whom should be accommodated justly.
It can be said that shutting down the airport would ultimately cause great harm to a number of different parties involved and since the times are extremely uncertain, no one can really tell when everything will be back to normal again and so taking such a step would increase tensions for many people and families directly since the rate of unemployment would naturally and automatically increase greatly. The resentment amongst the masses would then lead to other different issues which could really become a source of headache for the governing bodies.
