ROANOKE, Va. – It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and for travelers, one of the busiest.
“AAA is forecasting more than 109 million people were expected to travel between December 23rd and January 2nd for the holidays this year. That’s 28 million more people than last year, ”said AAA Mid-Atlantic Senior Specialist Morgan Dean.
At the Roaonke-Blacksburg Regional Airport Monday afternoon, all flights were on schedule.
“It went smooth, nothing was delayed or anything,” said Ty Finn who was getting back in town.
Nationally, flying over the weekend and into Monday was a nightmare. Pilots, crew and airport staff calling out due to COVID surges.
”I was a little nervous about it considering everything was getting canceled,” said Jake Hart who also was returning from a holiday trip.
Last-minute scheduling conflicts caused headaches for travelers throughout the country. In Roanoke, the impacts were minor.
ROA experienced some hiccups after the air-traffic control tower had COVID precautionary measures and had to close Sunday night for cleaning.
“That did cause some delays some flights this morning. it caused a cancellation yesterday with one of the allegiant flights that was supposed to come in,” said ROA Director of Marketing Brad Boettcher.
While things are mostly smooth sailing in Roanoke, people who plan to fly still need to plan ahead.
“That’s where it’s really important for people to download their carrier’s app, make sure they got the push notifications on so if the carrier needs to let them know any alerts they have it right there on their phone and knowledge is power in that case,” added Boettcher.