SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) -Monday is officially the last day of the holiday travel season which means we could see some busy roads and busy airport terminals.
Just a week and a half ago.
Monday’s weather forecast couldn’t be more different, but the travel forecast is still expected to be busy.
This is what passengers trying to fly out of SBN faced just before Christmas, compared to what it looked like on the runway today.
Flights were on time for the most part and there were no problems getting off the ground.
Our crew arrived at the airport just as a flight was returning from Punta Gorda, Florida.
Some of the passengers on that flight said their return trip was much smoother than when they left South Bend, while others said they missed the chaos of the trip altogether.
“The flight there was supposed to be 2.5 hours and ended up being basically 4 hours. There were delays there, delays coming back, we had to wait to get off, and it was just terrible in my opinion. It was much easier to get back to South Bend. We left Punta Gorda and were basically on time the whole time,” said South Bend commuter Josh Sisson.
“We missed the big mess beforehand, so apart from a half-hour to an hour delay – I don’t think it was an hour departure delay, and we had to de-ice and all that – but it was good to be back,” said South Bend journeyman Les Anderson.
Although the airport appears to be back on schedule, just as many travelers, if not more, are hitting the road.
Freeways may be a little more congested with more drivers expected on the road than normal.
Sgt. Ted Bohner with the Indiana State Police says to avoid getting stuck in a bunch of cars while on the freeway because of this.
He says travel will be much easier than what we experienced at the beginning of the holiday travel season, when roads were covered in ice and stormy conditions made visibility nearly impossible.
ISP reports that more than 90 vehicles that were stranded on roads during that storm were to be reunited with their owners when conditions became more manageable.
Bohner says he’s relieved that the only thing he has to worry about is the extra cars on the road, rather than the number of vehicles sliding off them.
“It’s very tiring and everyone is working very long shifts too. So it’s not your typical shift, this is a longer shift. It was also days on end. It wasn’t just one day, it was a series of days,” he said.
Sgt. Bohner said it took them an additional two and a half days after the weather cleared to reunite all those drivers with their vehicles.
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