GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Sunday was a busy day for many travelers as they headed home from this Thanksgiving weekend.
Many of them took to the skies, but for some, it was not without complications.
Nearly 5,000 flights were delayed or canceled around the United States, according to Flight Aware, which says many of those issues stemmed from weather.
FOX 17 went to Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids on Sunday to check in with passengers.
Many of them told us they felt lucky. A lot said they planned to deal with delays and were pleasantly surprised when that didn’t happen.
“It was really smooth, except when we landed in here. It was like a 30-minute wait to get off the plane,” Skylar Venick told FOX 17.
“I just woke up and got to the Phoenix airport actually two hours early, which was great, because I had plenty of time to kill,” Michelle Blyveis added.
“I was surprised that everything was going well, like, everyone was getting on their flights. Everyone was moving through the airport very, like, swiftly, so it wasn’t that bad compared to last year,” Nico Santos said.
Nearly 55 million Americans were expected to travel 50 miles or more this Thanksgiving weekend, which is a one-and-a-half percent increase from 2021.
“The couple of airports we were at, there was like very minimal delays and everything, so it wasn’t like, ‘oh, we’re gonna be the next one,’ no. It was all smooth traveling,” Anna Raven said.
Meanwhile, amid inflation, airfare is up nearly 43 percent from 2021.
