Nov 25, 2007 11:25 pm US/Central
Travelers Faring Well At Airports
Monday Should Be Busy At O'Hare
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
So far, it's been smooth sailing at the airprots with no cancellations and minimal delays. But Monday is supposed to be the busiest travel day of the weekend at O'Hare, as CBS 2's Katie McCall reports.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving is typically a heavy one for air travel, but whether you're coming or going – the toughest part of your trip may be the drive to and from the airport.
Thanksgiving travelers arrived at O'Hare and Midway International Airport expecting long lines and delays, instead they are finding very little to complain about. As of 9:39 p.m. Sunday, O'Hare has a few flight delays of up to 15 minutes and Midway Airport has a few flights delayed up to 60 minutes on flights going south, due to weather.
"I think I'll get through in like 20 minutes, my flight doesn't leave for an hour," said traveler Jackie Walsh.
Traveler Cherokee King said, "it's better than last year … because it's not too many people and I've had luck with not full flights so it's been pretty okay."
Traveler Omar Miri thought the trip would be worse, even with his luggage being all carry-ons. Traveler Judy Owens left later in anticipation of the bad travel times.
"I thought leaving this late would be good, so I kind of planned on that," she said.
The airport system says Sunday is Midway's heaviest of the Thanksgiving travel season with more than 80,000 people passing through; it is O'Hare's second busiest with more than 230,000. But even with all those people and all those planes, there are just a handful of delays. Early passengers didn't have any trouble checking their baggage and getting to their planes.
"Easy, not bad. We did curbside check-in in just a few minutes … no lines," said Cara Bine-Dalton.
"Everything is running very smoothly, passengers are getting through without any problems and flights are on time," said Chicago aviation spokesperson Karen Pride.
The airports credit the good weather, extra staffing and the fact that people traveled over an 11-day period this Thanksgiving instead of eight days in the past.
Whatever the reason, the ease of travel is making it easier for Chicagoans to say goodbye to visitors and welcome loved ones home.
Monday is expected to bring the heaviest traffic to O'Hare with 237,000 people, whether it will easy traveling then depends largely on mother nature.
According to surveys, a record 38.7 million Americans were expected to travel more than 50 miles between the day before Thanksgiving and Sunday. That's an increase of more than 1.5 percent from last year, according to the AAA.
CBS 2's Rafael Romo contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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