The decision by Virgin Australia to appoint administrators was sad for the airline's dedicated staff, Mr Byron said, but he was confident it was the right move to ensure the carrier could be reborn in a new form.

"There is no question that it is critically important for consumers and the price of airfares that there is competition," Mr Byron said.

"I think this administration will tidy up Virgin and it will be reborn in some shape or form to be a very positive second carrier."

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said on Tuesday a second airline was vital not only to Australia's tourism industry, but also to the territory's tourism sector, which was worth almost $3 billion last financial year.

Virgin made up around 40-42 per cent of Canberra's flights, Mr Barr said, and the company's budget carrier Tiger Airline's Canberra to Melbourne and Canberra to Brisbane routes were some of its most successful.

Canberra Airport closed its doors for two days last week with no flights scheduled to arrive or depart, but the terminal will be open every day until June after the federal government guaranteed a skeleton number of domestic flights to move passengers and freight across regional areas.

Like many businesses, Capital Airport Group has had to make difficult decisions due to coronavirus but Mr Byron said moves to diversify the business through interests like the Brindabella Business Park and Majura Park Shopping Centre mean the group will be able to weather the storm.

"We've always tried to develop the business park to drought proof the airport for this type of circumstance, not that one could have ever expected a pandemic and the passenger numbers to really go below 50 per cent let alone to zero," he said.

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Coronavirus had presented challenges to the business on more fronts than just the loss of air traffic, but had also affected tenants across the business park and shopping centres.

"In terms of the change in the financial position of the business, with the collapse of the passenger market, we've cut back on a lot of our capital expenditure and especially a number of new projects in the business park," Mr Byron said.

"The staff have been enormously supportive of working with us to reduce the costs of the business and especially in the operation of the terminal."

Tenants like cafes and gyms in the business park and retailers that had been forced to close were offered waivers on their rent straight away, before the government introduced a mandatory code of conduct for commercial leases.

Having already seen the airport and the industry through the collapse of Ansett in 2001, Mr Byron said there were significant differences in the two situations that gave him hope the airport would see out the crisis.

While the broader economic picture is dire, with high unemployment predicted and passenger numbers already collapsing before Tuesday's announcement, there was more hope that aviation would at some point return to normal.

The new normal is unlikely to snap back to the same levels of traffic experienced before the virus hit air travel, but Mr Byron said he was hopeful through the gradual easing of restrictions allowing people to visit family, for domestic tourism and the restoration of business travel would allow the airport to see more travellers.

"I'm hopeful of getting to 25 per cent, and 50 per cent, but I think there will be a reality that there will be an amount of traffic that will not be happening for some time."

"We've been here before and we know we can get through it, and we know we as the Canberra community and the aviation industry will get through it and come back," he said.