Airport, TDOT prepare for rush of travelers over Thanksgiving holiday

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Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport, TDOT prepare for rush of travelers over Thanksgiving holiday

Natalie Underberg was getting yanked around by her two dogs at a rest stop at the Tennessee-Georgia border.

She had stopped to stretch her legs and give the leashed dogs a chance to do the same. Underberg was on her way from Nashville on Saturday to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family in Florida. The seasoned traveler said she usually leaves midday to avoid the morning rush.

"And when I come back from Florida, I come back late at night so I miss Atlanta traffic," she said.

Holiday travel data

Underberg is one of the nearly 47 million Americans projected to travel 50 miles or more for Thanksgiving - the highest since 2007 pre-recession levels.

An estimated 1,075,870 Tennesseans will travel this week, the American Automobile Association said. That's an increase of 1.7 percent.

Tennesseans traveling by car account for more than 95 percent of those on the move - higher than the national average of about 89 percent.

To accommodate all the vehicles on the road, the Tennessee Department of Transportation will suspend all lane closures on state highways starting noon Wednesday through 6 a.m. Monday.

"We do like to get out of the way on holidays," said Jennifer Flynn of TDOT. "It's bad enough as it is without throwing construction in there."

American travelers during Thanksgiving week - defined as Wednesday through Sunday by AAA - are up 0.6 percent from last year, which represents 300,000 additional nationwide travelers. That number has risen each of the last seven years.

Even so, it still isn't the amount of traffic 2007 saw, when nearly 51 million people traveled.

The 2008 recession created a sharp drop of more that 25 percent of those who had traveled the year before. Only 37.8 million people traveled during the 2008 holiday week, which was plagued by a shrinking economy and high gas prices.

Chattanooga also felt the toll of high gas prices back then. Prices were at a record high in the area just two months before Thanksgiving that year, where the average gallon of gas was just under $4 in September 2008. Prices have dropped significantly since, and now the average price for a gallon of gas in Chattanooga is $1.83, down from $2.50 last year.

For Don Lindsey, Tennessee AAA public affairs director, the change in behavior is easy to explain.

"These pump prices are helping to boost disposable income, which helps people feel more confident about traveling," he said.

Weather concerns also seem to be a non-issue, at least in the Chattanooga area.

Jessica Winton, a meteorologist from the Morristown, Tenn., National Weather Service office, said high pressure will be in the area, so there shouldn't be any rain around Thanksgiving. In fact, Thanksgiving day should be mild and sunny, with a high of 63 degrees and a low of 41, she said.

Forecasters are not making any promises for Sunday, however. A front approaching the area could bring showers that day, but it's still too soon to tell.

"It could be pushed back into the week after," Winton said. "But that's the only thing worth mentioning. It's going to be gradually warming up this week and should be mostly clear skies."

Not everyone who travels hits the highway. An estimated 35,153 Tennesseans are projected to fly this year.

Terry Hart, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport, said officials measure traffic in overall amounts of seats available for flights in a given week.

Last year, the Chattanooga airport filled 5,701 of 8,084 available seats - 70.5 percent - during the week of Thanksgiving. This year, 6,051 of 8,664 available seats - 69.8 percent - have been filled. So while the percentage of filled seats is slightly down, the overall number of people flying out of Chattanooga Airport has increased.

"Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday are our busiest days," Hart said.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days of the year for air travel.

Most airlines will have more employees working during the rush, said Hart, who used to work on the airline side of things.

"It was all-hands-on-deck after Thanksgiving," he said.

Contact staff writer Evan Hoopfer at ehoopfer@timesfreepress.com, @EvanHoopfer on Twitter or 423-757-6731.