COVID-19 is one of the biggest challenges the airline industry has ever faced. Airlines have never before seen such a dramatic and sustained decline in air passenger demand. The industry has previously grounded fleets during times of emergencies, such as for hurricanes or earthquakes or the 9/11 terrorist attacks — but never has it needed to reduce capacity by 80–90 percent and sustain such reductions for months.

A team led by Georgia Tech researchers has been awarded a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to address declining transit ridership. The grant establishes the research consortium as one of four new Tier 1 University Transportation Centers (UTCs), which are funded to address critical transportation challenges facing the United States. Just four teams were selected from nearly 70 applications to receive the UTC grants.

In an article posted to Preprints.org, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering researchers, joined by colleagues in the Sam Nunn School for International Affairs, Purdue University, and Arizona State University consider the infrastructure and sustainable development implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.