Busy Air Travel Day | Video

Jennifer Joas | 11/21/2012

Wednesday was one of the busiest travel days of the year. People are bustling to and from Bismarck in an effort to see their families for the Thanksgiving holiday. And with all 12 departing flights full, it made for a busy day at the airport.

The O`Shea family is just one of many families traveling home for Thanksgiving. They flew into North Dakota last week for a hunting trip and now they are heading back home to Philadelphia.

"Actually, we made the flight reservations only a few weeks ago and we are kind of surprised that we were getting the last flight out on Wednesday night," said Tim O`Shea.

Although it is one of the busiest travel days of the year, passengers in Bismarck are not experiencing long lines, and they say they are not too worried about their flights.

"Everything looks good. The weather looks great. We had a flawless flight out. And it looks like the weather is going to cooperate, so we`re not expecting any weather-related issues. But you never know when you get to Denver," said O`Shea.

But while the O`Shea family was just beginning their journey, the Matous family arrived in Bismarck to visit family in Hazen. Chelsey was traveling home from college and says while the airport in Kansas wasn`t too bad, there was a lot of hustle and bustle in Minneapolis.

"There were not too many smiles. A lot of people were looking down and trying to get to their gates on time, I think," said Chelsey Matous, traveling from Kansas.

Matous says a flight after hers was delayed but she happily arrived in Bismarck on time.

"It is always the best feeling. You get off and you get to relax. I walked off and I got to see my grandma right away when I came out through the gate, so that was one the best parts of my day," said Matous.

The Bismarck airport manager says there has been an increase in passengers this holiday season, and he is expecting boarding numbers for the year to increase by 34,000.

"We continue making incremental improvements to try to keep up with increasing demand. And things have been going really good," said Greg Haug, Bismarck Airport Manager.

Haug says flights continue to be full through the holiday weekend. He says if you`re traveling on the holidays, give yourself extra time to check in and get through security. Also, do not wrap any presents.

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