Tourists chose Palm Springs International over surrounding airports
The Palm Springs International Airport is becoming more popular than ever,with many travelers choosing to fly directly in the Valley instead of other surrounding airports like Ontario and LAX.
“It’s a nice place to be, different than Chicago O’hair. A little bit smaller, but I like it is very quaint, very scenic,” said traveler Sam Heer.
Heer flew in to Palm Springs with a group of friends for a weekend wedding.
“We checked around, we looked at two things, the convenience of the flight trying to minimize connections and then look at the price,” said Heer.
Heer told us between Palm Springs, Ontario and LAX, Palm Springs was not only the most convenient, but also the cheapest.
“I love that it’s very nice for the travel budget and I can spend an extra few dollars while we are in town,” said Heer.
It’s money that will only help boost the Valley’s $5 billion tourism industry.
“It is so easy to come here instead of going to Ontario or into Los Angeles,” said Palm Desert resident Holly Agliolo.
Over the past ten years the number of people that have come through Palm Springs International Airport has increased 55.5%.
“It’s small, it’s very handy, you can drop the car off and walk to the ticket counter, so it’s get from that perspective it’s great,” said traveler Mike Mathias.
Palm Springs also offers 20 direct flights, that’s 50% more cities than Ontario.
“You can get in and out of the security really quick, it’s not a big problem,” said traveler Robert Heydlauff.
“Love it, so convenient, we were just talking about lax and how convenient it is and this is fabulous,” said traveler Jennifer Sly.
More flights does equal more noise.
“We’ve noticed several more flights just because we live so close to the airport. It’s hard not to notice when there is a lot more air traffic,” said Palm Springs resident John Werner.
Most people we talked to didn’t mind the extra noise.
“Absolutely not because I am so excited to see planes land because they are coming for vacation and actually feel bad for when they are leaving because I know people are leaving our wonderful spot,” said Agliolo.
