BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — It’s business as usual at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport, as millions of travelers are expected to take to the skies during the Thanksgiving holiday season.
“What we are going to see are folks that have to fly, folks that choose to fly and families that it’s their first time flying since March,” says Jeff Lea, a spokesperson at MSP International Airport.
Lea says over the next 10 weeks, the airport expects to see a 20-30 percent increase in travelers passing through for the holiday season, with the busiest day being Wednesday – the day before Thanksgiving. This comes after the Centers for Disease Control issued an advisory for travel as COVID-19 cases top more than 12.3 million in the United States since the pandemic started. Lea says overall travel has been down 60-75 percent at MSP, depending on the day of the week.
“We’re still drastically down and this is impact felt by airports all across the US,” he says.
In places like New York, which was once the epicenter of the country’s COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced new guidelines allowing travelers to the state to “test out” of the mandatory 14-day quarantine – by testing negative for COVID-19 before and after arriving.
Although traveling is discouraged here in Minnesota and by the CDC, those traveling to the state or returning home are encouraged to self-quarantine for 14 days after arrival and limit interactions to their immediate household.
While Lee says the airport is seeing an increase in last minute cancellations, he’s urging people traveling to plan ahead. “Giving all the changes in the pandemic and cautions being urged and information going on in the public about traveling, there are a lot of last minute cancelations and last minute bookings as well, so those numbers have been changing on a daily basis,” he says.
To find out more about health safety efforts at MSP International Airport, visit the link here.