BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — With time winding down before Thanksgiving Day, things are ramping up at Boston’s Logan Airport.
According to AAA, nearly 80 million people are expected to travel more than 50 miles for Thanksgiving this year. This includes a record-breaking projection of 5.84 million travelers flying domestically and a 23 percent increase in international bookings across the U.S.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Massport Aviation Director Ed Freni said it has been a “strong” year for Logan Airport, reporting around 4 million passengers for five consecutive months. U.S. citizens are not the only ones contributing to the increase.
“We see our inbound traffic in the international phase of things stronger. It’s a good phenomenon for us when we see that people are coming here to enjoy the U.S. and we hope that doesn’t change,” said Freni. “We should exceed our numbers in our record year of 2019.”
Freni also said he is confident that the number of people flying for business will continue to increase after nearly disappearing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think it’s coming back now. I think the airlines are bullish on what they see with business-class travel. We see it coming back,” said Freni.
With President-Elect Donald Trump promising to tighten restrictions on foreigners traveling to the U.S., Freni said there is “concern.”
“We’ll watch it closely. [We’ll] work very closely with our customs folks in case there’s some kind of sudden impact, but we’re hoping that there wouldn’t be that much of an impact on people,” said Freni.
WBZ’s Mike Macklin reports.
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