By air, highway, Arkansans head off for holidays

LR airport traffic down 5%

Jock Marx (upper center) wheels a cart of luggage topped off with his daughter, Belle, 4, as they move to a ticket counter with Jock’s wife, Jessica, and son, Talon, 7, Tuesday at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock. The family drove from their Memphis home for a cheaper
flight to Oregon to be with family for Christmas.
Jock Marx (upper center) wheels a cart of luggage topped off with his daughter, Belle, 4, as they move to a ticket counter with Jock’s wife, Jessica, and son, Talon, 7, Tuesday at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock. The family drove from their Memphis home for a cheaper flight to Oregon to be with family for Christmas.

Ed Summers of Vilonia is used to greeting military personnel at the state’s largest airport, with it being one of his duties as a family readiness program manager for the 189th Airlift Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard at Little Rock Air Force Base.



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So there he was Tuesday at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field to greet another National Guard airman, a 21-year-old returning from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan.

But this Christmas Eve visit to the airport was particularly poignant for Summers.

“I’m normally waiting for others to come back, not waiting for my son,” Summers said as his son, Jonnie, stood nearby talking to his mom, Ginny, and other family members as well as leaders of his Guard unit.

The deployment was Jonnie Summers’ first time away from home.

“It was tough,” the elder Summers said. “He is our youngest.”

When he shipped out, Jonnie Summers wasn’t certain he would make it back home in time for Christmas.

“Things just worked out,” he said.

The Summers’ experience is one of thousands that will play out over the next few days at the Little Rock airport, which cited U.S. Transportation Security Administration figures that 40,663 travelers will fly out of the airport over the end-of-the year holiday travel period, which stretches from last Friday through Jan. 1.

Typically, a similar number of air travelers will arrive in Little Rock.

This year’s figure is a 5 percent decline from the 42,713 who flew out of the airport at the same time last year and is consistent with the overall decline in passengers going through the airport this year compared with 2012.

Still, the airport will be busy, with a larger mix of lei-sure travelers who generally don’t fly as often as business travelers do, airport officials said. Airport officials urged passengers to arrive at the airport no later than 90 minutes before flights and to follow all Transportation Security Administration rules, including leaving gifts unwrapped.

On a clear and cold Tuesday afternoon, traffic was light at the airport, and only one flight, an American Airlines flight from Chicago, had been canceled.

Nationally, the number of travelers was inching upward, with AAA predicting that 94.5 million Americans will journey 50 or more miles from their homes during the holiday season. Although it marks an increase of just 0.6 percent compared with the same period a year ago, AAA said it also is the fifth-consecutive increase in year-end holiday travel.

The largest North American leisure and travel organization also said that median spending during the holiday was expected to rise to $765 compared with $759 during the year-end holiday-travel season in 2012.

An estimated 85.8 million people will travel by vehicle over this year’s holidays. Airline travel is expected to decline slightly, to 5.53 million from 5.61 million last year, AAA said.

“While economic growth has stagnated and consumer confidence has fallen, Americans will not be Scrooges when it comes to traveling this year,” AAA Chief Operating Officer Marshall L. Doney said in a statement. “AAA is projecting more Americans to travel than ever before to gather with friends and family, exchange presents and ring in the New Year.”

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/25/2013

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