In 2020, being a tourist meant taking a trip from the bedroom to the sofa, with a layover in the kitchen. After a year of quarantine staycations, many are making travel reservations to visit family and friends and locations with sun, sand and outdoor recreation activities, or planning their itineraries for when they are ready to travel again. National Travel and Tourism Week, May 2-8, is the perfect time to explore places to visit. 

1. Save money and emissions by taking the train to the airport.  

Beneath the bright and bustling passenger terminals of Philadelphia International Airport sits a hidden complex of roadways and tunnels, each of them traversed by baggage tug vehicles towing thousands of bags each day.

This underground transportation network was constructed in the 1970s and connects airline tug carts to baggage claim basements and conveyors. The maintenance of these tunnels can prove costly, an issue made more difficult by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aviation industry’s revenues.

This summer will see American Airlines resume direct service between Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) and 10 cities across the U.S.  

Resuming June 3: 

The City of Philadelphia has just announced that any person who lives or works in the city is eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccination at the Center City Vaccine Center or the Esperanza Community Vaccination Center. This means that all airport badge holders are now eligible for vaccines distributed through the city.

Sun, sand and outdoor recreation destinations will continue to be the top vacation spots for those that choose to travel this summer. Frontier Airlines is giving PHL passengers two more options, adding Portland, ME (PWM) and Providence, RI (PVD) to their Philadelphia roster beginning in July. PHL-PVD flights will operate three times a week beginning July 12; PHL-PWM service is slated for four times a week beginning July 13.

Longtime PHL volunteers Ken Uller and Karen Kenney are shown above at the airport pre-COVID-19.

In an effort to expand the airport’s contractor base and open opportunities to more diverse firms, PHL’s Office of Business Diversity and Capital Development Group have scheduled a series of virtual roundtable networking sessions for Minority, Women, Diversity Business Enterprises (M/W/DBE). The first session was held in March.