Before the pandemic, Oakland lawyer Bryan Schwartz boarded planes for three to four business trips a month. Now he takes that many work trips in an entire year.
Attorney Bryan Schwartz, founder of his law firm, Bryan Schwartz Law, looks out the window of his office in Oakland on Aug. 18, 2023. Events at San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center brought in just 190,000 attendees in the past fiscal year, 62% fewer than the half a million that attended the year before the pandemic, according to Visit San Jose, an economic development group. Annual tech conferences that once filled the center “have either ceased to exist or have remained completely virtual as work patterns and priorities have shifted significantly,” said spokeswoman Frances Wong.
For air travel, San Jose Mineta International Airport came out last on the list of major U.S. airports for its 22% decline in flights from April 2019 to April 2023, Raisz said. San Francisco International Airport saw a 16% drop, and Oakland’s flights fell 18%. While the data from the U.S.