Akron- Canton airport receives kudos

Canton Repository

GREEN

Akron-Canton Airport has been judged the best alternative to major airports for the busy Thanksgiving weekend by online travel company Orbitz.com.

One travel official said part of the reason the airport is recognized is its successful marketing efforts.

Akron-Canton leads the top-10 list of airports that “aren’t necessarily the least busy in the top-100 list, they are the least-busy alternatives relative to other major airports serving destinations in the area, and should prove easier to navigate over Thanksgiving,” Orbitz said.

“That’s cool,” said airport CEO Richard McQueen. The report listed the 10 busiest and the 10 least-busy Thanksgiving airport alternatives.

It makes sense that Akron-Canton isn’t in the least-busy airports overall, he said. “We’re going to be busy over Thanksgiving weekend. We’ll have packed flights,” he said. But “we’re the easier alternative. We’re proud that Orbitz has figured that out as well.”

Part of that is a function of having fewer flights than the major airports. No airport in a state that touches Ohio was listed among the top 10.

“The fact that we have worked so hard to make sure the customer experience here is great, whether it’s Thanksgiving weekend or any other day of the years, has been recognized,” said airport Vice President Kristie Van Auken.

According to the Air Transport Association of America, travelers can expect to face a 3.5 percent year-over-year increase in the number of passengers on U.S. airlines in the last two weeks of November.

The association projects 24 million travelers will take domestic flights during that period.