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New York's three major airports are operating at just five per cent of their normal capacity as essential travelers arrive at near empty terminals amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

US airlines have significantly reduced their schedules or grounded flights altogether as travel is banned for most of the population. 

Usually-packed airports in the city have become empty shells and thousands of airport workers have been laid off. 

American Airlines employees wait for passengers to check in at near-deserted LaGuardia airport

Passengers, one wearing a protective jumpsuit and shoe covers, wait for their flights at LaGuardia Airport

A departures board lists multiple canceled flights in Terminal 1 at John F. Kennedy International Airport

New York's LaGuardia, Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports remain open but are only dealing with five per cent of the normal traffic. 

At LaGuardia, Delta Air Lines are now operating just 15 flights per day, compared to 150 before the pandemic, while United Airlines are now operating just 15 of its flights at Newark Liberty, down from 140. 

JetBlue Airways is suspending flights at eight US airports for two months. In New York, the airline will continue to operate reduced schedules at John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports but will suspend flights to and from LaGuardia from April 15 through to June 10.

Essential traveller Jim Mack who flew from Tampa, Florida to New York City to coordinate the placement of additional nurses at overrun hospitals was stunned by the deafening silence that greeted him on landing at La Guardia. 

A woman down a plastic protected sign in the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint area of John F. Kennedy Airport's Terminal 5

A lone car pulls to the curb of Departures at LaGuardia airport during the coronavirus outbreak

Newark Liberty International Airport's Terminal stands empty 

'It felt like it was either closed or I had landed in the wrong terminal,' he told the New York Times. 

Rather than the rows and rows of taxis waiting to pick up travellers, Mr Mack was greeted by a single Uber driver when he exited Terminal B.  

Numerous major US airlines are preparing to apply this week for a $25 billion US government loan program after winning billions in federal payroll grants, people familiar with the matter said. 

United Airlines said on Wednesday it expects to get $5 billion in federal cash and loans to meet payroll costs through September. 

That's a little less than the $5.8 billion and $5.4 billion that American and Delta expect in figures they issued the day before.

Airline stocks were mixed Wednesday on news that 10 carriers including all the biggest ones struck deals with the Trump administration to get coronavirus-relief funds.  

United Airlines said on Wednesday it expects to get $5 billion in federal cash and loans to meet payroll costs through September (United Airlines jet pictured) 

The aid will cover only 76% of airlines' their payroll costs, and J.P. Morgan analyst Jamie Baker said he doesn't see how airlines will avoid 'massive layoffs' in October unless federal payroll protection is extended.

Estimated global airline losses from the coronavirus pandemic have climbed to $314 billion, 25 per cent more than previously forecast, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday.