Since Connecticut’s travel advisory, Bradley Airport is seeing fewer passengers. That could be permanent.

It’s been a month since Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont enacted a travel advisory aiming to cut down on travel from coronavirus hot spots across the country. And at least for airline travelers, the advisory seems to be working, with Bradley International Airport screening fewer passengers now than it did in June.

But the apparent public health success may also spell misfortune for the Windsor Locks airport, as airlines cancel regular flights and pause service to the state’s only major airport.

The rollbacks threaten Bradley’s standing as a true international airport, a status that officials such as Connecticut Airport Authority executive director Kevin Dillon have spent years fighting for. Dillon worries that airlines won’t reinvest in Bradley flights once the advisory lifts.

“You really have to scratch and claw for every seat, every airline, every aircraft that you get into the airport,” Dillon said. “So when you have airlines now pulling assets out of Bradley and putting them somewhere else, it becomes extremely difficult to convince them to put them back in Bradley.”

Lamont’s travel advisory went into effect on June 25, and was crafted in coordination with neighboring states New York and New Jersey. The advisory directs travelers from hot spot states to either self-quarantine for 14 days when they enter Connecticut, or to test negative for coronavirus.

As states around the country have seen coronavirus spikes in recent weeks, the list of affected states has grown. By Tuesday, it included 31 states.

Even before the late-June travel advisory, Bradley had been hit hard by the coronavirus. During April, when Connecticut saw the peak of the virus, passenger flow was down 98%, Dillon said. On April 13, for instance, the airport screened only 253 people.

But by June, passenger flow had begun to rebound and was down only 75%, Dillon said. On June 12, for instance, the airport screened 2,661 passengers.

Since the advisory went into effect, that rebound has begun to reverse course, Dillon said. On Monday, the airport screened 2,395 passengers. On Tuesday, it screened 1,992.

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“The impact here is sizable,” Dillon said. “This is a direct result of the travel advisory and the burden that’s been put upon people that have to fly back and forth to those areas.”

The governor’s spokesperson, Max Reiss, said Lamont’s administration knew that a travel advisory would affect the airline industry, but ultimately decided it was a public health necessity.

“Putting a travel advisory in place, a mandatory self-quarantine in place, we know that these are the best ways to help control the spread of the virus,” Reiss said. “We have to balance [that] with the importance of Bradley and Tweed [New Haven] when it comes to the state’s economy.”

Reiss nodded to Connecticut’s first coronavirus wave, which began when travelers returned from states such as New York and Washington, according to a study from Yale researchers.

“The virus didn’t grow in Connecticut, it came into Connecticut,” Reiss said. “The governor [and] the Department of Public Health are trying to come up with the most actionable ways to keep our progress going in Connecticut.”

Dillon said he’s not qualified to comment on whether the travel advisory is the best public health move, but he wants the state to understand the impact on the airport.

He said that, predictably, some airlines have stopped or reduced flights from states that are on the advisory list. For example, he said Spirit Airlines has reduced its Orlando and Myrtle Beach service from daily to once every few days. Southwest Airlines has already decided to cut its St. Louis and Orlando flights to once-a-week beginning in September.

But even flights through non-affected states — such as Southwest’s Denver route — are being canceled, Dillon said, likely because those routes are often used as connecting flights from other areas.

He worries that airlines won’t reestablish those routes when the advisory lifts, particularly because the Connecticut area can still be serviced by larger airports in New York City and Boston.

“Airlines in large measure don’t have to be here in Bradley,” Dillon said. “A lot of the gain that we’ve been able to achieve here … over the past eight years really is being threatened somewhat by this travel advisory.”

Reiss said the state will help the Connecticut Airport Authority weather that storm, and said Lamont talked with the CEO of Jet Blue in recent weeks. Reiss also said the state hasn’t ruled out financial assistance for the Airport Authority, which is a self-sustaining agency.

“The governor would absolutely do what we need to do to make sure we build a lot of those routes back up and even expand,” Reiss said.

The state’s role in airport assistance depends partly on whether the federal government continues to support the airline industry. The CARES Act, which, President Donald Trump signed in March, authorized $10 billion to be distributed to eligible airports.

As part of that act, Bradley received more than $28 million, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Ten other Connecticut airports received funds, although most received well under $100,000.

Emily Brindley can be reached at ebrindley@courant.com.

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