Officials expect busy highways, full flights out of Killeen’s airport and a packed waiting room at the Temple Amtrak station.
John Sutton, director of aviation at the Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport, said the business traveler is soon to be replaced by the average holiday traveler working to get home in time for that first slice of holiday ham, but the influx won’t be too significant.
“We won’t expect to see a large increase in passengers,” Sutton said. “It won’t result in the airport being overrun with passengers.”
Sutton said when the holiday season rolls around every year, all flights are practically booked coming from Killeen and going to hubs in Houston, Dallas and Atlanta, but not to the point where they have to add flights to compensate for a possibly significant increase in the passenger load.
Jed Olcott, station agent at the Temple Amtrak station, said he expects the waiting room to be a busy place over the Thanksgiving holiday.
The station is located at 315 W. Ave. B, adjacent to the Railroad and Heritage Museum.
“I would guess that between the 26th and the 29th or 30th of November, will be very, very busy on Amtrak,” Olcott said. He explained that the day before Thanksgiving would be busy with travelers headed out of and into town for dinner with relatives, with travelers going home during the weekend days after the holiday.
“The minute school lets out, if it’s any kind of a holiday when they can get away, generally we get pretty busy,” he said. He added that he doesn’t have a feel yet for how the Christmas holiday will be.
Olcott, who has been at the Temple station since July, said ridership varies.
“Right now, with everything as it is, yes, we’re doing very, very well, I would say,” he said, referring to the economy and people seeking different means of travel.
AAA anticipates a high number of travelers on state highways, with Texas second only to California in the number of residents who travel during the Thanksgiving holiday, said Sarah Schimmer, AAA Texas Houston spokeswoman.
With tight budgets, lower gas prices - which dropped 11 cents from last week to an average of $1.84 in Dallas - might have more travelers on the roads than originally expected.
“Ten out of 11 of the metropolitan areas in the state now have gas prices under $2. AAA Texas has forecast a 1.2 percent decline in the number of Texans traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but those lower gas prices may attract people to travel at the last minute,” Schimmer said.
While lower gas prices help the pocketbook, for those who want to get home for the holidays, sometimes there’s a stronger pull.
“Most often, the heart strings outweigh the purse strings when it comes to holiday travel,” Schimmer said.
- Bryan Kirk, Robert Stinson and Tammy Leytham
