The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on wildlife-aircraft collisions at US airports

Exploiting unprecedented reductions in aircraft movements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigated the relationship between air traffic volume and the frequency of wildlife-aircraft collisions, or wildlife strikes, at the 50 largest airports in the United States. During the COVID-19 months of 2020 (March-December), both air traffic volume and the absolute number of wildlife strikes were reduced. The net effect of these two movements, however, was an increase in the wildlife strike rate from May 2020-September 2020. This increase was found to be most pronounced at airports with larger relative declines in air traffic volume. We concluded that the observed increase in the wildlife strike rate was, at least in part, generated by risk-enhancing changes in wildlife abundance and behavior within the airport environment. That is, wildlife became more abundant and active at airports in response to declines in air traffic volume.

Automated summary

Taking advantage of the reduced aircraft movements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we examined the correlation between air traffic volume and wildlife-aircraft collisions (wildlife strikes) at the top 50 airports in the United States. Both air traffic volume and the number of wildlife strikes decreased during the COVID-19 months of 2020 (March-December). However, there was a notable increase in the wildlife strike rate from May to September 2020, particularly at airports with larger declines in air traffic volume. We concluded that this increase was partly due to changes in wildlife abundance and behavior in response to reduced air traffic volume.