The Pittsburgh International Airport has completely overhauled its operations in recent weeks as the coronavirus outbreak cripples the airline industry.
“We’ve got a whole lot of people still working, because that’s what airports do. We stay open,” said Christina Cassotis, CEO of the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which oversees the Pittsburgh International Airport.
The number of passengers coming through the airport has dropped upwards of 90 percent, according to Cassotis. The rapid shift in business has forced a realignment of budget, staffing, and resources at the airport.
The authority cut its capital and operational budgets 15 percent almost immediately after the coronavirus hit the U.S.; consolidated terminals to shut down unused escalators and walkways; and offered a voluntary furlough program and early retirement to a number of employees.
Ten percent of workers took the furlough, Cassotis said, and data is still coming in on the number who accepted early retirement, but at this point she’s not planning on permanently cutting staff.
“Nobody’s been laid off, and we are not going to be laying anybody off. That’s the plan,” she told Cheddar. “There are people who had child care concerns or other family considerations that would have prevented them from coming into work. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t lose them.”
Some employees have also started working remotely, which is uncommon for airports.
“That’s not something we’re used to,” Cassotis said.
In the meantime, there is still much to be done at Pittsburgh International Airport, the second busiest in Pennsylvania, as the coronavirus hobbles much of the economy.
The civil-military airport is still getting steady traffic from military and cargo planes. There has also been an uptick in attempted cyberattacks, which means IT professionals are busy securing the airport.
The goal is for the airport to “be ready for when the industry flips back on,” Cassotis said.
“We’re a pretty lean team,” she added. “I don’t see us being able to do it with fewer employees here at the authority.”
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
