The roads and skies across the state and country will be filled with holiday travelers this week.
In the sky, Cherry Capital Airport is into its second busiest time of the year as travelers arrive at the airport to visit family for the holidays.
TVC CEO Kevin Klein said flight are packed, and the airport is estimating a total of 940,000 passengers. Their previous record was 787,000.
Nonie Steele is flying to Ohio for Christmas with her family, and has already had a hiccup.
Nonie said that when she arrived, there was no airplane.
She said that something had happened to the plane while taxing in Chicago, and she will now land 2 and a half hours later than planned.
On the ground, travelers are thankful for lower gas prices.
Prices this week at the pump are 12 cents lower than last week, meaning drivers are spending $40 for a full 15-gallon tank of gasoline.
As travel begins, roads were mostly clear for drivers like Greg Haggerty, who lives in Traverse City.
He said it is the traffic making travel difficult, adding ”The roads are pretty clogged up with cars right now. But not too much ice, so. That’s nice. The last couple days have been kind of melt and freeze and melt and freeze, so you never really know what to expect with the roads.
While Greg says he is staying home for Christmas, he urges caution to those traveling.
He said “I would say just keep your wits about you and drive carefully. Even if it doesn’t seem like there’s ice, there still could be, and that can catch you off guard.”
While this time of year is busy, its for a good reason.
Kevin said “It’s a good feel to see the smiling faces for people to greet their families, for people coming home, whether it’s families with newborn, newborns that kids that are here or it’s military families.”