Many in Delaware Valley experience easiest Thanksgiving travel, due to COVID
BOOTHWYN, Pa. - Thanksgiving, pandemic style. It isn’t what anyone wanted, but, across the area, folks are coping the best way they can.
It’s the first Thanksgiving Eve and no one is running at Philadelphia International Airport.
“Heading to Tampa to see my family, specifically my grandmother,” Christian Destefano shared.
The security line stress-free and short, with people who chose to stick to their Thanksgiving travel plans. Some with an itinerary they feel is safer than their usual traditional gathering.
“We are going down to Atlanta, Georgia for a wedding, outdoors and we’re going to have Thanksgiving down there, all outside,” Holly Oaksen said.
“My family is having a large gathering in New Jersey, but I’m like I’m not going to do it, so I’m going out there and I’m just going to enjoy myself a little bit,” Robin Morgan explained regarding her trip Las Vegas, Nevada.
Coronavirus Restrictions: What you need to know in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware
Philly International says this week is the busiest travel period that the airport has seen since the COVID-19 pandemic began. But, it’s still a 56 percent decrease in passenger volume compared to Tahnksgiving week last year.
“AAA has been tracking Thanksgiving travel for the past 20 years and we expect to see near record lows,” Jana Tidwell, with AAA Public Affairs, stated.
Tidwell says at least 83 percent in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware said they are planning to stay home for Thanksgiving.
COVID-19 a reason for some, as state and local leaders urge against any traveling. Tidwell says among those traveling, well over three quarters said they would drive.
“It looks like a ghost town,” June Dauberman, with the Pennsylvania Welcome Center, observed.
Still, an eerily quiet Pennsylvania Welcome Center by the Delaware border in Boothwyn, compared to the Thanksgiving Eve shift Dauberman says she worked in 2019.
Jim Orosky, among the few visitors heading to a small gathering at his son’s house, traffic-free.
“We haven’t seen him since June. We figured this would be a good time to go while we can get out and get back,” Orosky remarked.
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