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American Morning

Travelocity CEO Discusses Holiday Flights

Aired December 21, 2001 - 09:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Holiday weekend has begun. That's a live shot of Reagan National Airport, in Washington, D.C. Travelers, long lines forming at airports all around the country. Reagan National earlier this morning was reporting some of the longest delays anywhere. This is a day where both passengers and planes could be stacked up around the nation as people try get an early jump on the holiday week ahead.

Let's check in with CEO of online travel service Travelocity. He has been monitoring the situation for us. Terry Jones is joining us this morning from Dallas, which is Travelocity's headquarters.

Terry, nice to have you back with us.

Anything changed in the last hour or so? Where are the bottlenecks?

TERRY JONES, CEO, TRAVELOCITY: Well, Reagan is still having the delays you mentioned, about 45 minutes for check-in. Also, at Dallas: USAir, Continental, United over 60 minutes for check-in. And at Newark, 60 to 80 minutes for check-in. So if you can go to curbside check-in, if you're going to check a bag or get a boarding pass, you are going to save a lot of time.

But security delays are not too much. Newark is 30 to 60 minutes, Dallas 30 minutes, and Reagan only about five minutes.

Everywhere else is running very well so far. A little bit of delay at Philadelphia for flight operations, about 45 minutes. And Salt Lake has a little snow. Other than that, the rest of the country is running very well.

CAFFERTY: What about provisions for a possible security breakdown. The other day at one of the airports, somebody had forgotten to plug in one of the luggage screening machines, and they shut the hole place down. Are they going to be as particular about that kind of thing over this holiday weekend?

JONES: Absolutely. It is going to be very difficult. So you need to make sure that you have taken everything out of your bag. They are going to make you, probably, take off your overcoat, your sport coat. Don't forget that they are doing extra searches at the gate itself, so very often, four or five people are going to open your bag and take everything out. You just need to spend more time, and it's hard to tell which airport's going to be long. But the airports we mentioned are taking the longest right now.

CAFFERTY: Anything you can do before you leave home to minimize the potential delays?

JONES: Absolutely. If you haven't used those bags before, look through them and make sure you have taken all the sharp objects out. If you are taking gifts along with you, don't wrap them, because gifts are going to look a little strange to the x-ray folks, and they are probably going to want to open them.

Make sure, if you have an electronic ticket, you print out your receipt before you go. Then you can go right to security. You don't have to stand in those long lines, and you can get right through. It will save you a considerable amount of time.

CAFFERTY: What is the best airport in the country day in and day out to travel through?

JONES: Chicago and Dallas for connecting passengers are great. Dallas did a very good job, hardly any delays. Denver, which did very poorly in October, has now improved quite a bit, as has Baltimore, which had a terrible time right after the incidents and now has come back and is doing pretty well.

CAFFERTY: We will check with you in a little bit, Terry. Thanks very much, Terry Jones, CEO of Travelocity.

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