Concerns remain about future of travel industry

WASHINGTON (SBG) — In the quest to get the travel industry back on track, there are new fears its momentum from the last few months may soon come to a screeching halt.

“My biggest concern is these vaccine mandates are going to have a negative effect on the ability to staff the tsa pilots and we really have to be smart,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

Dow was part of a Summit in Washington called “The Future of Travel Mobility,” during which he pressed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who appeared virtually, about those mandates.

Mayorkas said there has been a major effort to increase staffing levels over the last few months, but there is some concern about what will occur.

"We’re very focused on this. We have a ways to go we’re in the homestretch and we are optimistic the cautiously so but we’ve got a ways to go,” he said.

Many major airlines will be requiring employees to comply with the federal Dec. 8 vaccine deadline.

Meanwhile those who work for Amtrak and the Transportation Security Administration are required to get the shot before Nov. 22, or may risk losing their jobs.

That’s two days before what is often the busiest travel day of the year.

“They have a problem they do have a challenge and will they have enough of people at TSA and all that. Will enough people save their jobs? I think we’re going get right down to the wire as everything happens in government,” Dow predicted.

The United States is less than two weeks away from reopening its borders to international travelers. Those over the age of 18 will be required to be vaccinated and airline workers will be responsible for checking for proof of vaccination.

As with shortages in supplies, a phenomenon that has prompted business leaders to ask the Biden administration to extend vaccine mandate deadlines, Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va., hopes they’ll consider doing the same for those employed by the travel industry.

“If we get into a situation where we’re traveling and we have long lines or we get turned away for one reason or the other it just adds to that uncertainty and I think it will really depress our economy,” she said in an interview at the travel summit.

It’s an economy that’s just now been back on the road to recovery.