EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) This holiday season the Spokesperson for the City of El Paso says Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Friday following Thanksgiving Day are expected to be the busiest at the El Paso International Airport
“Already this year, travel stats on some days have reached pre-pandemic levels. To put the upward air travel growth trend in perspective, our latest operating report shows an impressive increase of 120.4% compared to September 2020 for total passenger traffic. Year-to-date total passenger traffic is also up 73.1% as compared to the same time last year…”
Tammy Fonce, City of El Paso Spokesperson
AAA says 3.9 million Texans are expected to travel for Thanksgiving, with the majority driving, not flying.
“Of that, 3.6 million about 92 percent will drive to their destination, 230,000 Texans are going to fly to their Thanksgiving destination, and another 50,000 or so will take a train, a bus, or a cruise because cruises are back open and that’s also contributing to the higher travel volume that we’re seeing,” said Daniel Armbruster the Spokesperson for AAA Texas and New Mexico.
According to a an AP story, more than 2.2 million travelers streamed through airport checkpoints last Friday, the busiest day since the pandemic devastated travel early last year.
From Friday through Tuesday, the number of people flying in the U.S. was more than double the same days last year and less than 9% lower than the same days in 2019.
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