It's Discount Week! 🎁 Pick up new Marketplace gear at a discount when you donate today! Get My Gear!
My Economy

Grounded by pandemic, this pilot hopes to fly again soon

Rose Conlon and Jonathan Frewin Dec 15, 2020
Heard on:
HTML EMBED:
COPY
Before the pandemic, Nick Gifford flew passengers around Europe as a commercial airline pilot. Courtesy Nick Gifford
My Economy

Grounded by pandemic, this pilot hopes to fly again soon

Rose Conlon and Jonathan Frewin Dec 15, 2020
Heard on:
Before the pandemic, Nick Gifford flew passengers around Europe as a commercial airline pilot. Courtesy Nick Gifford
HTML EMBED:
COPY

My Economy” tells the story of the new economic normal through the eyes of people trying to make it, because we know the only numbers that really matter are the ones in your economy.

The aviation industry has been hit especially hard by this recession. And even as air travel picks up a bit around the holidays, it’s still nowhere near what it was before the pandemic. In the U.S., 752,451 people went through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint Monday compared to 2,250,386 people on the same day last year.

Before the pandemic, Nick Gifford flew passengers around Europe as a commercial airline pilot. But as air travel dramatically slowed in the spring, Gifford, who was working as a contractor for a Belgian airline at the time, quickly lost his job.

Back home in Leeds, England, he circled through various jobs before landing at the National Health Service as a convalescent blood plasma collector. His new income is just a fraction of his old one.

During the pandemic, Gifford got a job as a convalescent blood plasma collector at the National Health Service.

“Financially it’s been a huge hit, probably an 80% pay cut from being an airline captain to the role I’m doing now,” Gifford said. “I can no longer afford the mortgage on the house; the house has been on the market for a few months now. No offers unfortunately so far, but perhaps in the new year.”

And while he finds his current work fulfilling, he’s looking forward to when air travel picks back up.

“I’m certainly more optimistic now looking into 2021 with the vaccines. I think there’s a good chance travel will start to recover and I can start flying again, hopefully.”

Let us know how your economy is doing using the form below, and your story may be featured on a future edition of “My Economy.”









There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.