Days before Christmas, people are on the move

BOSTON — People are on the move days before Christmas. Airport officials say they had their busiest few days this past weekend.

Gov. Charlie Baker reacted to the flight numbers on Monday as they try to figure out how to handle the surge they are expecting after the holidays.

Elise Conti and her now fiance just got engaged and they wanted to break the news to family in person back home in Atlanta for Christmas.

“We are just trying to take every precaution we don’t go anywhere. The only trip we do is to the grocery store in the last month,” Conti said.

A brother and sister were also on the move for the holidays. Ridhi Patel says it was a tough decision.

“Yes it was because we have a lot of family that could be effected by Covid or what not,” Patel said.

Baker began his Covid briefing with a reality check on what happens when people let their guard down at Christmas.

“If this second holiday season produces a surge in infections that we saw coming out of Thanksgiving we will be in serious danger of overwhelming our healthcare system,” Baker said.

We asked the governor if the increase in air travel is concerning after putting pleas out to the public to stay put during the holidays.

“I think our big worry is Christmas and New Year’s and the week between have the potential to create the same kind of dynamic we saw over Thanksgiving,” Baker said.

TSA said this past weekend was the busiest since the pandemic started with three days in a row with more than a million passengers a day being screened. We pulled the numbers locally. More than 86,000 were screened this weekend at New England airports. That’s up more than 30,000 from the weekend before.

Travelers said they are following the guidance.

Patel said they “took the necessary precautions and we are going to quarantine for two weeks when we get back. We really wanted to see each other because it was a hard year. We are all each other’s support system”.

TSA is expecting to see a lot of people fly back home on the Sunday after Christmas and the concern there is those people will then interact with people back home for New Year’s Eve.

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