March Break Madness Begins With Mass Exodus
Posted March 9, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
- Vacations are supposed to be relaxing.
- But getting away from it all can be so taxing you almost need some more time off just get over the experience.
- Which brings us to Pearson International Airport Friday and the mass exodus to get away early for March Break.
- The new Terminal 1 will be getting quite a workout over the next week, with more than 93,000 passengers expected to come through the hub each day on Friday and Saturday alone.
- The norm is about 84,000.
- All those people have only two things in common – they’re all going somewhere over the next seven days. And they all can’t wait to get there.
- Where is everybody heading? A survey by the CAA finds the Top 3 destinations are Florida, Las Vegas and Cancun, Mexico.
- Others are off to Cuba or South Carolina. And some are even going on a much shorter excursion to New York.
- And then there are those going north or west for a final round of skiing before the snow starts to melt in the spring.
- “It’s very busy as you can see,” points out Scott Armstrong of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
- He’s pleased to see most people are prepared for their flight. “The passports in particular, most people knew about it …
- “Check before the flight, know what you can, cannot bring but the basic rule of thumb is small, travel-sized items and in a clear bag and have it ready for screening to speed things along.”
- To check your flight status online, click here. You can also call (416) AIR-PORT (247-7678). For more advice on how to avoid some of the dealys, click here.
- For those who can’t afford plane fare, there’s always the car. For one woman, listening to the sounds of the kids in the back seat for the next several thousand kilometres will be music to her ears.
- “I just finished seven nights in a row, I work at Scarborough Gen. [Hospital]. I’m really looking forward to it,” she assures. “This is really good.”
- People on budgets or going a shorter distance crowded the Bay St. bus terminal. It’s not clear if any of them are heading to Florida, but if they are, they’ll be using up a lot of their time off to do it.
- It takes about 42 hours and three transfers to get there if you let someone else in one of the big vehicles do the driving.
- But you’ll have a lot more money to spend when you finally arrive. The fare is only about $200.
- Busy as things are this weekend, expect a spring rerun when all those people who left on Friday come back next week.
