WICHITA, Kansas —Katie Hansen’s recent trip from Columbus, Ohio, through Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Wichita felt pretty familiar.
Sure, several restaurants sat closed, but O’Hare looked busy and her flights were full.
“If people didn’t have masks on,” Hansen said, “there would be nothing different.”
The sense of bustling airports is a mere illusion, the result of a smaller number of air travelers grouped into a reduced number of flights.