Rough Start To Holiday Travel Season At DIA
By Joel Hillan
DENVER (CBS4) - Denver International Airport estimates 178,000 passengers will travel through the airport each day this weekend.
Travelers we talked to were cautiously optimistic.
"So far so good, we'll see how the rest of it goes," Robin Ong, who is traveling to Detroit, said.
"We usually end up cut it really close, not intending to so we are actually here early," Ong said.
It was a rough start for the airport.
The concourse train glitched twice, a glitch airport officials say has never happened before and one they want to ensure will never happen again.
All that happened before John and Amber Yackovich arrived at the airport.
"It was actually pretty easy," Amber said.
John is deployed to Fort Carson as an Engineer and will be staying here, Amber will take their daughter to Pittsburgh.
"We'll be FaceTiming, watching them eat and see if she'll actually eat the turkey," he said, referencing his young daughter.
For the Simmonds, it's a trip to San Diego.
"We're going to see Great Grandma Louise and a bunch of other family and friends," Julie Simmonds said. She told CBS4 Great Grandma Louise is 102 years old.
They came from Boulder, left three hours early and were prepared for anything.
"With two little kids is always a little bit of a tossup depending on what happens but so far so good," Julie said.
DIA hired extra people to help out TSA and keep security lines moving. A strategy that worked out well as security wait times were kept reasonably low despite the added holiday traffic.
Joel Hillan anchors CBS4 This Morning on weekends as well as reports stories for CBS4 News at 5 and 6 p.m. Follow Joel on Twitter @joelhillan.