4 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 10, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
New York air travel ascends to near pre-pandemic levels
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Air travel in the New York City area
took off around the February midwinter
break, coming closest to 2019 levels since
the pandemic began.
Passenger volumes were up to 98.3% of
pre-pandemic levels for Feb. 18-24 compared
to the same time three years ago at
the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey’s three largest airports.
Offi cials with the Transportation Security
Administration counted more than
1.15 million travelers during that time
period, compared to 1.17 million in the
same time frame in 2019.
LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty
International Airport even served more
travelers than pre-COVID, at 107.7% and
104.5% of 2019 levels respectively, while
John F. Kennedy International Airport —
the busiest of the three travel hubs — was
still down at 89.3%.
Th e latest fi gures, which the Port Authority
provided to amNewYork Metro, show
that the Big Apple is slightly above national
trends where the average passenger volume
was still at 88.4% of pre-COVID fi gures
during that time.
Director of State Operations Kathryn
Garcia said last week that the returning
aviation travel was promising for the city
and state.
“It is great to see all of these things
coming back — we have a long way to go
— but I’m excited about what the future has,”
Garcia said at a recent transportation panel
hosted by New York University.
Th e bump in air travel was likely fueled
by the Presidents Day weekend and the beginning
of the February recess in New York
City schools, according to Port Authority
spokesperson Th omas Topousis.
Most recent full monthly fi gures from
January 2022 show that air travel numbers
dipped down due to the omicron surge and
winter storms.
Th ere were 7.1 million passengers that
month, down to 71% compared to January
2019, and down from 9.8 million people in
December.
Prior to the worldwide health crisis
of the coronavirus, the Port Authority
logged a record 140 million annual travelers
in 2019, but as with other modes of
transportation, their numbers cratered
and dropped by 95% during the early
months of COVID-19 in 2020, before
recovering to 54% on average across 2021.
Th e Port Authority’s seaports have
experienced record-setting levels both
in January and for all of last year, and
the bi-state agency’s four bridges and
two tunnels have been its second-best
performing infrastructure at near prepandemic
levels of car traffi c for months.
On the low end, the Authority’s PATH
mass transit trains have seen the slowest
Photo by Jeenah Moon/REUTERS
return of ridership at 33% of 2019 levels
in January and 36% of pre-COVID trips
for all of 2021.
Th at tracks similarly to the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, whose
seven bridges and two tunnels regularly
register pre-pandemic rates of vehicle
crossings while mass transit has lagged
behind.
Transit has come back quicker at the
MTA, however, with daily subway trips
has routinely toping 3 million since the
omicron variant’s winter surge receded
in recent weeks, including more than 3.2
million on Th ursday, or 56.3% compared
to 2019, according to the newest agency
counts.
Manhattan man arraigned in ‘brutal’ hammer attack on woman in LIC
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
A homeless man from lower Manhattan
was arraigned in Queens Criminal
Court and charged with attempted
murder for the brutal hammer attack
on a 58-year-old woman at the Queens
Plaza subway station in Long Island
City last month.
William Blount, 57, whose last known
address is in a shelter at the Radisson
Hotel on William Street, appeared
before Queens Criminal Court Judge
Edwin Novillo on a six-count complaint
charging him with attempted murder,
assault, criminal possession of a
weapon and other charges, according to
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
According to the charges, at around
11:30 p.m. on Feb. 24, 58-year-old Nina
Rothschild was heading home from her
job as a researcher at the city’s Health
Department when she was followed into
the subway station by Blount.
As alleged, the defendant began to
kick the woman down the stairs, struck
her head multiple times with a hammer,
then grabbed the victim’s blue tote bag
from her arm and fled the location.
Rothschild was rushed by EMS to
NY-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical
Center, where she remains in critical
condition with a fractured skull, an
intracranial hemorrhage and other cuts
on her head, according to the DA.
“This was a brutal, gratuitous attack,”
Katz said. “As alleged, the defendant
kicked the victim down a stairwell
during a robbery and struck her repeatedly
with a hammer and with such force
that he fractured the woman’s skull and
caused other serious injuries. The subways
are too integral to the lifeblood of
our city for riders to be terrorized when
using them. The violence has to stop.”
He faces up to 25 years in prison if
convicted.
Additionally, a St. Albans woman
was arrested the day after the attack
and charged with using the victim’s
credit card just hours after the assault.
Denise Alston, 57, of Keeseville Avenue,
was taken into custody in front
of a commercial strip on 21st Street for
allegedly making a $19 purchase using
one of Rothschild’s credit cards.
Police recovered the victim’s Chase
Freedom Visa card, two department
store cards and her New York City identification
card, allegedly from Alston’s
wallet.
Alston was arraigned Monday before
Queens Criminal Court Judge Anthony
Battisti on a complaint charging her
with criminal possession of stolen
property and other crimes.
If convicted, Alston faces up to four
years in prison.
Delta airplanes line up at JFK Airport.
Photo by Dean Moses
William Blount was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on attempted murder and other crimes,
while a St. Alban’s woman was charged with allegedly using the victim’s stolen credit card.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
