Travel angst lingers as airports, airlines gear up for holiday rush

Though the forecast looks favourable, airports and airlines are gearing up for the prospect of travel snarls as the holidays approach, ramping up staffing and flight schedules, readying updated facilities and doling out advice to passengers.

Michael Morrow is sitting poolside in Cancun, a Corona lager in hand, but with the faintest of knots in his stomach.

"To have a trip cancelled due to the airline is painful, but to have it happen at Christmas -- when that is the only possible time to have the trip -- is much more painful," he says, referring to a holiday excursion to Mexico last year that was cancelled due to crew constraints.

This year, he's slated to fly back to Thunder Bay, Ont., from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Dec. 25. He and his family have built in some buffer time for their holiday plans in case of delay. But his experience lingers in his mind, along with other tales of travel nightmares from 12 months ago, when thousands of passengers saw their flights delayed or cancelled largely due to poor weather.

"I would always be nervous if I had something important," he says.

Though the forecast looks favourable, airports and airlines are gearing up for the prospect of travel snarls as the holidays approach, ramping up staffing and flight schedules, readying updated facilities and doling out advice to passengers.

Toronto's Pearson airport is expecting a small city to pass through its gates daily -- 160,000 at the peak in the coming week. The Vancouver airport anticipates two million passengers in December, nearly 250,000 more than at the same time last year. Some operators pinpoint this Friday and Dec. 29 as the most high-traffic dates.

"In every airport around the world, it's a very busy time," said Anne-Sophie Hamel, a spokeswoman at the Aeroports de Montreal.