Pearson Airport predicting busiest travel day of holidays

(Updated)

If you’re at home watching us tonight, you’re probably enjoying the fact that you’re avoiding the busiest travel day of the year…

Thousands of people are likely taking a break for Christmas, Chanukah, or just a well-needed rest. We found one of the busiest travel spots at Pearson Airport this morning.

Look at them all.

Too many to count.

Big ones. Small ones. Where could they all be going?

Moscow, Mexico, Punta Cana.

It’s the busiest day of the year, at Toronto’s Pearson Airport:

Trish Krale, Greater Toronto Airport Authority: “We’re looking at about 121-thousand to go passing through the airport.”

Some pack a little. Some pack a lot. Some pack the Christmas presents they bought.

And some gave a gift, to themselves.

Tatiana Kilimnik: “We’ve got a teacher that needs a break, and this kid, and one happy mommy!”

Not everyone is going for fun:

(Where you headed to?) “Minneapolis.” (Business?) “Yeah, and I’m a little bit late.”

And some have farther to go than others like Beth and Garth O’Neill, who started their day, in Thunder Bay: “Well we’re heading to Dallas, on our way to Hawaii. (Really? Is this a little Christmas present?) It is yep, we’re meeting up with our whole family. Her sisters and her mom as well.”

It may seem chaotic but Trish Krale says, it’s nothing new: “You know this is something we see every year at Christmas, the March break and the end of the school year, beginning of summer — we see similar numbers and similar peaks in travel, so we know they’re coming, the airlines realize they’re coming and so we’re definitely fully staffed.”

And even the weather is co-operating. Sunshine. Blue Skies. No snow. Which makes the hardest part of the journey.

But it’s worth the effort. and despite the tens of thousands of people streaming through Pearson today. Almost every flight was on time. Very few delays. And officials say the biggest reason for that was good weather.