Caren's Corner

Friday, December 21, 2007

Fogged In Flights (news article)

(repost of http://www.week.com/news/local/12755197.html)

By Syreeta Baker

Nearly 9–million people will get to their holiday destinations by plane.
Friday, those trying to fly out of central Illinois got fogged in.

Between the Greater Peoria Regional Airport and the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington, more than half of today's flights were canceled or delayed. But that didn't dampen all air passengers' spirits.

Some airline passengers arrived at the Greater Peoria Regional Airport early Friday morning only to be met with flight delays and cancellations because of heavy fog.

"We are trying to accommodate the passengers as best as we can with the airlines," said Ken Spirito, Director of Peoria Airports.

Some passengers lucked out with airlines offering to take them by bus to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
But for those travelers left sitting and waiting, Santa was there to entertain.

"I'm just talking with children the adults visiting with everybody as they come in and out of the airport just trying to make everybody feel a little happier during the holiday time," said Santa.

While the fog left some passengers a bit agitated.

"It's a little frustrating but that's the nature of the beast it's just a fact of life," said Douglas Dougherty, a holiday traveler.

Others like Caren Bordowitz ended up capitalizing on the weather in two ways. Her son got to spend some more time with Santa and she got free tickets vouchers for being bumped.

"Due to the fog they had to put more fuel on the plane and because of the weight limit they had to knock some passengers off and it was us," said Bordowitz.

Santa is used to granting wishes, but guiding planes through the fog is Rudolph's job and there just isn't enough of him to go around.

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