South Bend, Indiana (WNDU) – Monday is officially the last day of the holiday travel season.
Just a week and a half ago, 16 News Now began airing at South Bend International Airport in single-digit temperatures and snowstorm conditions.
The weather forecast for Monday is not much different, but travel forecasts are still expected to be busy.
This is what passengers about to take off from SBN faced just before Christmas compared to what it looks like on the runway today.
The flight was mostly on time and there were no problems taking off.
Our crew arrived at the airport just as the plane was returning from Punta Gorda, FL.
Some of the passengers on that flight said the return journey was much easier than when they left South Bend, while others said they missed the travel disruption entirely.
“The flight there was supposed to take 2.5 hours, but it basically took 4 hours. It was awful.It was a lot easier to get back to South Bend.We left Punta Gorda and were basically on time the whole time,” said Josh Sisson, a South Bend traveler.
“We missed a big mess beforehand, so I don’t think we were an hour late leaving, except for a delay of 30 minutes to an hour. It was fine,” said South Bend traveler Les Anderson.
Airports appear to be back on schedule, but many, if not more, travelers are on the road.
The highway can be a little congested as more drivers are expected to be on the road than usual.
Sergeant Indiana State Police Ted Bohner advises avoiding being caught in a crowd of cars while driving on the highway.
He says travel will be much easier than he experienced earlier in the holiday travel season, when roads were icy and snowstorm conditions made visibility almost impossible.
More than 90 vehicles stuck in the roadway during that storm had to be reunited with their owners when the situation became more manageable, the ISP reported.
Bohner said he was relieved that all he had to worry about was the extra cars, not the number of cars sliding down the road.
“It’s very tiring and we all work very long shifts. So it’s not your typical shift, it’s a longer shift. It was also the last day. It’s not just a day, It was a series of days,” he said.
It took another two-and-a-half days after the weather cleared before all drivers were reunited with their vehicles, Sergeant Boerner said.
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