Colorado Springs Airport expects slight bump over Thanksgiving holiday

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- In what is normally the busiest time of the year for visiting family members, travel across the nation is down due to COVID-19. This year, 34,000 Coloradans are expected to travel by plane. That represents a decline of nearly 45% from last year.

However, the Colorado Springs Airport is expecting a slight increase in numbers this week by 10-15%.

Dana Schield with the Colorado Springs Airport said, “We are still down about 35-40% year over year from what we normally are. So even though we anticipate a slight increase over the holidays we are still going to be down significantly from where we’ve been in years past.”

If you do decide to travel, you will want to limit your exposure to other people as much as possible. That’s where the Colorado Springs Airport is hoping that their “small” marketing will help people in their decision to fly with them.

Schield said, “We have smaller lines, smaller walks to your gates. There are fewer people around you. We don’t have a train or a tram that you have to get on to go to your gate it’s all pretty close to where you need to be. You are able to spread out a little more.”

On top of that, the airport and airlines are trying to keep everything as clean as possible.

“We are cleaning high touch points multiple times a day, there is a mask mandate with the airport and with the airlines, and there is hand sanitizer available all throughout the airport," said Schield.

The Colorado Springs Airport is expecting the busiest days to be the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday and Monday after.

Schield said, “It’s tough, we don’t want to push people to travel during this time but we also want people to know we are here, we are open and operational and if you have travel needs we are here for you.”

Also, COS is once again offering 50% off long term parking for the holidays.