RALEIGH -- When Michael O'Connor and his family fly to see relatives for Thanksgiving, their bags may get there before they do.
Because of high airfares and baggage fees, O'Connor plans to ship luggage through the postal service before he, his wife and their 9-month-old son fly from Raleigh to visit family in Massachusetts. Having paid nearly $600 in passenger fares, they hope to save a little on airline baggage fees.
"It's certainly more expensive around the holidays anyway, [but] it seems much more expensive this year," said O'Connor, who lives in Apex.
He's right. In addition to all the security hassles facing air travelers this week, they also likely paid more than usual for their tickets. And they'll probably face packed planes.
Though prices are higher this holiday season, industry officials in Raleigh say costs haven't deterred many travelers. The number of passengers flying out of RDU has gone up, making it harder for consumers to find seats on discount carriers such as Southwest and AirTran.
"We like to fly Southwest because of the no baggage fees," O'Connor said, " ... but the flights that we wanted to take on Southwest were booked." So he paid $580 for two tickets on Delta from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to Hartford, Conn. (They'll go by car the rest of the way, to Long Meadow, Mass.)
The family will have a layover in New York City, and they're leaving earlier and taking more time off work because they couldn't find a flight on the dates they wanted.
Nationwide, air travelers will pay about $60 more for a ticket this year compared with last year, said Tony Maupin, president of Maupin Travel in Raleigh. Flights across the nation will reach at least 84 percent capacity - the highest since Word War II, he added.
"Many more people are traveling. The cost is not keeping them back," Maupin said. "It's going to be extremely difficult at the airport."
RDU counts are up
At Raleigh-Durham, passenger counts have risen by 1 percent for the year so far, and airlines are expecting a 3 percent bump over last Thanksgiving, said Mindy Hamlin, marketing communications manager for the RDU Airport Authority. The airport is expecting 280,000 air travelers during the 11-day Thanksgiving travel period that began Friday.
"We expect it to be very busy," Hamlin said. "I know we'll exceed 30,000 a day coming in and out of the airport."
Although some fliers are paying higher prices, Maupin said Raleigh is a hot spot for affordable fares.
"We live in a great area for cheap airfares, believe it or not," he said. "[We're] one of the top ten in the country for low airfares, because we have so many different flights and so many low-cost carriers."
The high prices, jammed planes and security woes for air passengers this week could actually be worse over Christmas, Maupin said, because the travel window for some passengers may be shorter.
"It all leads to somewhat of a nightmare scenario," Maupin said. "It's not going to be a fun place."
O'Connor is trying not to think about that just yet. He and his family hope to fly to visit different relatives for Christmas.
"We haven't even booked that travel yet," he said. "It's kind of like we're delaying it."
