PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Many Sunday morning travelers at Philadelphia International Airport were greeted with a pleasant surprise – security checkpoint lines that were 20 minutes or less, and flights that were on time.
“We were a little bit nervous coming in because we had been hearing on the radio that it’s one of the busiest days, but everything has been really smooth so far,” Jonathan Bricker said. He was traveling home to Atlanta with his husband after visiting family in Philly.
“I’ve actually had zero issues, which is really surprising – every flight has been on time and I’ve had zero wait at the airport,” Meredith Mills, who was heading home to Columbus, told Action News.
Isabella Bradley from Wyomissing was traveling back to college in Florida after spending the holiday break at home.
“Actually, I was surprised – it was snowing on the way here and we thought with the whole government shutdown and all that we thought it was gonna be longer.”
But not everyone can say the same.
A winter storm in the Midwest cancelled hundreds of flights in and out of Chicago over the last 24 hours, including Chad Smith’s 10 a.m. flight. He’s rebooked for Monday morning. Now, he has to decide if he should go back to his relatives’ house where he was visiting for the holiday, or just book a hotel.
“I don’t know, I’m trying to figure it out – my cousin lives in Philly, my sister-in-law lives in West Chester but they also gotta work tomorrow so I don’t know who’s gonna drive who and how much the Uber’s gonna cost me,” he told Action News.
Smith is headed to a medical convention in Chicago, and is expecting a lot of people to either show up late or miss it entirely.
“Because a lot of people come from overseas and everyone’s coming from all throughout the country. It’s a huge convention, 80,000 medical professionals.”
Travelers like Shonal Patel don’t envy him. She’s headed to a warmer destination in Jacksonville, Florida and says her entire trip has been a breeze.
“Even on the way here there were no delays, I think we landed early,” she said.
AAA expects 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. to be the busiest window at PHL.
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