Logan airport busy as FAA predicts storms may impact July 4th weekend travel
BOSTON - Logan Airport was bustling with travelers Thursday, and many of them were ready to do a lot of waiting around. "I'm hoping nothing happens on my short trip back," said Nancy Joseph, catching a flight from Boston to Washington, DC.
Also hoping for a smooth trip home, off-duty JetBlue pilot Burnell Age. "There's just not enough people who are qualified," Age said. "So this is probably going to be a pretty rough summer, pretty rough winter. It's probably going to take a year or two to get straight."
Predictions have numbers of air travelers up significantly over last year during this holiday. There's concern about whether airline, TSA, and airport staffing can handle it all, having been stretched thin since the pandemic. To further complicate matters, the FAA sent out a video on Twitter warning that storms could cause delays starting Friday.
"We thought a lot about making sure we had time between we came here early enough to get through security to catch our flight to New York," said Lecolion Washington, heading to the first connection on a family vacation from Boston to Copenhagen. A couple of weeks ago, extreme weather in other parts of the East Coast sent a ripple effect that had passengers sleeping on terminal floors at Logan.
"We are in a situation I don't think I've ever seen in my 30 years in the industry," said David Dague, an aviation expert with Arthur D. Little. "If you have to be some place say on a Saturday, don't leave Friday, leave Thursday. Give yourself that buffer. Leave in the morning, and you'll have a better chance of being accommodated. Also, the best days of travel in the summer would be anytime Tuesdays and Wednesdays when there are less passengers flying."