It’s Christmastime, and the traveling’s easier

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Fair weather helped make the holiday sojourn a not-so-painful experience in much of the country Thursday, even with more people on the move than last year, but travelers’ luck might be running out.

A storm was expected to bring snow and ice to parts of the heartland Friday, deliver a rare white Christmas to Nashville on Saturday, and perhaps sock swaths of the Northeast on Sunday.

“People that are going to Grandma’s house,” said Bobby Boyd, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Nashville, “need to get going.”

Eric and Tatiana Chodkowski, of Boston, were driving Thursday with their kids, ages 2 and 4, to see relatives in New York. They said forecasts for snow on Sunday made them wonder whether they’d make it back then, as planned.

They deemed the roads congested but manageable Thursday, and most people found the nation’s airports to be the same way.

Planes took off into windy but accommodating skies at New York’s LaGuardia Airport as Steve Kent prepared to fly to Denver for a family ski trip, scoffing at the puny lines.

“I don’t find it that difficult,” he said. “I think Thanksgiving is harder.”

The spread-out nature of the year-end holidays means things won’t be quite so cramped as holidays, like Thanksgiving, when practically everyone is on the move the same day.

“We have a lot of folks who already may have taken off of work,” said Troy Green, a spokesman for AAA. “They may have arrived at their destination before today.”

Mike Lukosavich, of Harrison Township, Mich., was surprised the first leg of his trip was moving so smoothly when he stopped at rest area on the Ohio Turnpike in Elmore, Ohio, near Toledo.

He, his wife and their 8-month-old daughter were heading to see family in Parkersburg, W.Va. His only headache came when he saw the gas price of about $3 a gallon.

“It’s something you have to do to see the family,” said Lukosavich, 33.

The AAA has expected overall travel to rise about 3 percent this year, with more than 92 million people planning to go more than 50 miles sometime between now and Jan. 2. More than 90 percent said they would be driving.

Maria Romero, a cashier at the Chevron Food Mart just off Interstate 15 in Barstow, Calif., said she has seen an increase in travelers there, especially families and people from out of state.

“It’s wonderful. We need it,” she said. “The busier, the better.”

The Air Transport Association expects 44.3 million people on U.S. flights between Dec. 16 and Jan. 5 — up 3 percent over the same period a year ago but still below pre-recession travel volume. The average ticket price is $421, up by 5 percent.

The Vino Volo Wine Room at Detroit Metropolitan Airport is benefiting from more travelers, manager Mark Del Duco said Thursday.

“The Christmas mood is more there this year than last,” he said, estimating that sales are up this 10 percent this season compared with last year as financially confident travelers spend more freely.

Helping matters is that the most densely populated parts of the country got a break from the weather Thursday with rain finally stopping in California and a few days away in the East.