Thousands take flight, drive for the holiday
Teenagers Larissa and Annalissa Contreras were armed Wednesday morning with blue and pink fuzzy blankets and bright suitcases as they waited with their mother, Sandra Contreras, at an airport coffee shop.
It was 8 a.m. — almost four hours before their flight from the San Antonio International Airport was scheduled to depart — but the San Antonians were buzzing.
Sandra’s parents and sister would be landing from El Paso soon. They’d be spending their first holiday together since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly three years ago.
And this year is extra special. The family is also celebrating Sandra’s father’s 75th birthday, so instead of spending time together in El Paso as they used to during the long Thanksgiving weekend, they decided to head to Las Vegas.
“We are very, very excited to celebrate my dad’s 75th and
just to know that they’re even here,” said Sandra, 51. “We’re blessed.”
The family was among thousands of travelers at the airport on Wednesday. The day before Thanksgiving is the busiest day, and airport officials were bracing for a projected 17,279 passengers.
The airport’s two parking garages and one of its two surface lots hit capacity on Wednesday. But as of midafternoon, airport officials still hadn’t had to start using the 1,000 overflow parking spaces that were carved out for the expected crush of holiday travelers.
In 2019, 15,695 people traveled through the airport the day before Thanksgiving, but that dropped to 6,259 in 2020, when Covid-19-related travel restrictions nearly brought the travel industry to a standstill.
Last year, the facility logged 15,476 travelers the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Mornings usually see the heaviest traffic at San Antonio International. Even so, foot traffic appeared to be light early Wednesday. Almost all flights were running on schedule and passengers were moving through the security checkpoints within 10 minutes.
AAA Texas projects that 4 million Texans will travel 50 miles or more from home Wednesday through Sunday — about 95 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Nationally, 55 million people will travel 50 miles or more, or 98 percent of the number of Thanksgiving holiday travelers before the pandemic.
Most Texas travelers — 3.6 million — will drive, while 238,000 are expected to fly.
Waiting for takeoff
Ximena Salas, 20, and brother Sergio Salas, 18, flew to Mexico on Wednesday to visit family. The college students said family gatherings over the past couple of years have been small because of the pandemic. But about 20 members of their family will be getting together this holiday season.
Ximena joked that she was excited to catch up on family drama.
The siblings plan to study during the break because finals are right around the corner for both of them.
April Johnson’s trip home to Tennessee to see her family got off to rocky start. Her early morning United Airlines flight was delayed five hours due to technical problems with the plane.
But Johnson shook it off. She was looking forward to getting home and celebrating what her family calls “Steaks-giving.” Since the bunch doesn’t like turkey, they always throw steak on the grill instead.
Johnson is a heavy-equipment operator, a job that keeps her traveling for weeks or months on end. She is currently working in Pearsall. She hadn’t seen her teenage daughter since August and couldn’t wait to reunite with her this Thanksgiving.
“It’s more than a kid on Christmas — you’re beside yourself,” Johnson said, describing her excitement. “I ain’t slept maybe three hours in the last three days, I have been so excited to see her.”