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Training camps across the CFL were postponed indefinitely Monday as part of COVID-19 measures, but the realization of just how big an effect the coronavirus is having hit Chris Presson well before the announcement.

The Edmonton Eskimos president and CEO gained an entirely new perspective from 40,000 feet in the air on his flight back home last week to be with his family in Arizona during the shutdown.

“My flight from Calgary to Mesa (Arizona), I was the only one on a 737,” Presson said on a phone call from Phoenix, where it is scheduled to hit 30C on Wednesday and Thursday. “The only one on the entire plane. Flight 1518 from Calgary to Mesa Gateway, I was the only passenger.”

And from the picture he painted, he might as well have been the last man on Earth.

Initially, he had booked a flight for later in the week, before deciding to call ahead and check on its status.

“Clearly the airlines are overwhelmed and I didn’t get through, so I drove to the airport and found out that my flight had been cancelled. And I was told that if I wanted to make it to the United States anytime relatively soon that I needed to do so by midnight last Sunday,” he said. “So I was able to get on a plane.”