PEORIA, Ill. – Jennifer Bernitt is looking forward to escaping the cold weather of Illinois during the Thanksgiving holiday.
“We’re just looking for a nice flight. We like to fly together, my daughter and I, and we’re meeting my parents and husband down in Florida,” Bernitt said, before boarding flights to head to Pensacola, FL.
The pair from Metamora were one of the many travelers to head out of central Illinois for the holiday on Wednesday, on what airport officials say is one of the busiest traveling days of the year. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is also one of PIA’s busiest days.
The airport is expecting more than 17,000 passengers to go through the turnstiles during Thanksgiving week, counting from Tuesday, November 26th to Monday, December 2nd. It has more than 20,000 seats available on 204 flights. During the same week last year, more than 15,000 seats were available on 162 flights.
Just on the day before Thanksgiving, PIA has 3,550 seats available on 34 flights. That’s an increase of around 600 seats and six flights, from the same time last year.
Director of Airports Gene Olson says that’s due to options increasing from the airlines operating at PIA.
“They laid on a lot of extra flights, and that’s one of the big reasons why we’re having so many passengers towards the end of the year,” Olson said.
Olson says Allegiant has added the most flights of the airlines that operate out of PIA.
Olson says he does not expect any issues to disrupt operations at the airport during the week, locally or across the country.
One of his biggest concerns about the week is the potential of snow in central Illinois, but he believes any snowfall that does fall will not stick and cause delays.
One of the cities where PIA offers flights to is Charlotte, NC, which saw a workers’ strike earlier this week, which has raised concerns about a ripple effect in Peoria. Olson says while the workers who went on strike do important work, PIA should be unaffected.
“They’re cleaning the aircraft, they’re pushing people that need wheelchairs or pushing those people around the airport. So those kinds of services might be impacted a bit. But in general, it’s not people that are directly connected with the operation of the aircraft, so the flights should still operate on time,” Olson said.
As far as people who are coming to board a flight at PIA, Olson says people should arrive around two hours before the scheduled departure, in order to give enough time to handle issues that may arise with boarding. He also says people who are bringing gifts should not wrap them, in order to have it move through TSA smoothly.
Olson says the airport has plenty of parking available for people who park and fly, especially with the addition of a lot north of Bylery. But he advises people to lock their cars and take their keys with them to avoid thefts.
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