PSP expects spike in holiday travel despite county and state officials urging people to stay home
State and local health officials are urging people to avoid nonessential travel ahead of Thanksgiving. As of Monday Palm Springs International Airport experienced a slight increase in travel. Officials said they expected more to come later on in the week before the holiday, and immediately after.
In Southern California, only about 259,000 [people] are expected to fly somewhere and even lower than that, only 29,000 are expect to take another mode of transportation," said AAA spokesperson, Doug Shupe.
The company forecasts a dip of about 7% for all modes of travel, and "air travel down almost 48%," said Shupe.
Despite the projections, health officials have asked families to limit their Thanksgiving celebrations to single-family households.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom and California's Health and Human Services Secretary, Dr. Mark Ghaly, spoke in a briefing about the upcoming holiday.
"We know that even across the state we’re asking you to stay as local as you can. Don’t travel beyond just a couple few hours from your home so that you can keep the spread down in our state," said Dr. Ghaly.
"We understand the frustration of people wanting to get together, but we really need to urge people as best they can to do the smaller, shorter, safer idea," said Riverside County Department of Public Health spokesperson, Jose Arballo.
Some travelers decided to make the holiday trip.
"It’s a concern, but we weren’t going to let that-- we thought it we took reasonable precautions we’d probably be safe," said Nebraska resident, Steve Ahl.
"I love my family and being away at college is tough without them, but I’m really glad I have an opportunity to be with them," said Washington resident, Gunnar Fields.
"We’re definitely expecting a bigger rush going into the holiday season this year than we have seen the last several months since COVID started," said Daniel Meier, C.M. Deputy Director of Aviation Marketing and Air Service for Palm Springs International Airport.
Meier said the airport expects some of its busiest days this holiday to be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday, when people return home.
"Our numbers have been down but we’ve slowly been seeing activities increasing, flights increasing. We’re operating somewhere around 54% of the passenger activity that we usually do this time of year," said Meier.
Meanwhile, a travel advisory issued by the state, remains in effect for people who travel out of the state. Residents who return are asked self quarantine for 14 days.
