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Detroit airport spared country-wide inclement weather on busiest travel day of the year

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Published  November 27, 2019 5:32pm EST
Detroit
FOX 2 Detroit

ROMULUS, Mich. - News reports certainly alluded to the perfect storm of holiday traveling and disruptive weather. 

Typically the busiest day for travel across the country, the country was walloped with inclement weather systems across the country. There's a bomb cyclone out west and blizzards in Colorado, then heavy rain across the midwest. So how did Michigan, a state its residents consider to be the epitome of whack weather, fare?

Pretty well, actually.

"I listened to the TV and they said 'get here early and that's what I did,'" said Lori Lacross, who was flying out on Wednesday to Colorado. "And I walked in and I was really expected it to be a lot worse than this."

Of the ones traveling to Colorado, Lacross was one of the lucky ones. About 450 flights were canceled and 1,000 travelers were stranded.

Travel delays all over the country, but at DTW

Despite reports of bomb cyclones and historic snowfalls, travel on the busiest day of the year went rather well in Detroit. With most of the country's inclement weather elsewhere, Michigan was spared the bulk of the disruptions.

In the case of expectations not met, Detroit Metro Airport's empty halls are a good thing. Officials with the airport said "it has not been significantly impacted by the current weather predictions." Not everyone was so lucky though.

The National Weather Service predicted "significant travel impacts" across much of the central and western U.S on Wednesday and through the night. 

Michigan was completely spared, however. Morning rain and high winds did impact power for tens of thousands of residents in the southeast Michigan area. DTE reported more than 75,000 were without power Wednesday

RELATED: Metro Detroit power outages: More than 75,000 without power

Triple AAA said despite its reputation, Thanksgiving was particularly busy in 2019 - with estimations of being the second-busiest travel day since they started recording travel volume. There was a 4.6 percent growth.

Even so, for those coming and going through the airport, they spoke of surprise.

"This is amazing because I flew in on Monday and it was completely insane. So I will take this to go home," said Latricia Brown, who was flying out.

"Pretty seamless, it's been pretty awesome. We got in and out pretty quickly of our direct flight here," said Sarah, another flyer.