CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Gerald R. Ford International Airport expects record travel this spring break.
“Spring break is the number one travel holiday of the year for us,” Alex Peric, airport COO, said. “West Michigan really does well during spring break. It does beat out Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Nearly one million Michiganders are expected to travel this spring break, according to AAA. A recent survey found more than a quarter of the Mitten State’s residents plan to travel via cars and planes over the next two weeks.
At the Ford Airport, 150,000 passengers are expected to fly in and out between March 30 and April 11.
Air travel at the airport has increased by 8% from this time last year. Peric said they expect to beat their 2019 numbers, which was a record year.
“Flights will be full. So we do ask people to come two hours prior to the airport,” he said. “We have plenty of parking available but that premium closed-in parking is always a challenge.”
Hundreds of thousands are also expected to hit the roads over the next couple of weeks. On Tuesday, MDOT will launch a new campaign, Make the Chatter Matter, where parents are encouraged to have difficult conversations with their kids during their time on the road.
“A lot of the times when we’re driving places we have a captive audience. So we can have those little conversations, those teachable moments in the car,” Vicki Kavanaugh, prevention manager with Arbor Circle, said.
Dozens of organizations partner with the Michigan-based parent resource site Talk Sooner. The site provides parents with prompts and drug-use facts that they can share with their children.
“We’ve been a partner with Talk Sooner almost since its inception,” Kavanaugh said. “Talk Sooner is a website where we empower parents to have those difficult conversations really around drugs and alcohol. Really around any difficult topic. In particular, we offer tips, we offer facts about drug trends on the website.”
