A group of Northeast Lauderdale High School students’ trip to Greece was cut short because of the COVID-19 virus.  

The group boarded a plane from Athens to Frankfurt, Germany on Thursday and will spend the night in Frankfurt before flying to Houston on Friday. Once there, they will either take a flight or take a charter bus to Birmingham by Saturday.

Cynthia Taylor, a teacher at the school, said the main priority was to make sure the students were safe.  

“The goal is to bring our children home before anything else happened,” she said.

The trip home has been fine, Taylor said: while going through each location, there were no issues. She’s not sure yet if any students will be quarantined when they return from overseas.

Taylor was disappointed the trip was cut short, but the students’ safety comes first, she said.

Jamie Randall, a senior, agreed. 

“I hate it that they had to cut it short, but it was to keep us safe,” Randall said. 

“I never thought this kind of thing would happen,” said Piter Gonzalez, a junior. “But we were never scared, we felt safe.”

The spread of COVID-19, which was reported in Mississippi on Wednesday, is also affecting the local travel industry. 

“I think people aren’t going to be traveling over the next three to six months,” said Tanya Thompson, with Corrigan Travel Agency in Meridian. Thompson said several clients have canceled trips to Europe or rebooked them for a later date. 

Nick Chabarria, a travel expert with AAA, said the company’s agents are working with members on travel plans and keeping them updated daily. 

Tom Williams, president of the Meridian Airport Authority, says the outbreak hasn’t really affected the airport, which only offers domestic flights. 

“We have not seen a decrease in passenger traffic,” Williams said.