Hordes of Last-Minute Travelers, Shoppers Expected

Orange County residents this weekend are expected to flock to the malls and journey to visit friends and families out of town as the last few days before Christmas creep up, jamming highways and parking lots.

Friday and today were expected to generate the heaviest traffic at John Wayne Airport, where the new Thomas F. Riley Terminal is experiencing its first Christmas season. Airport spokeswoman Courtney Wiercioch said the number of passengers will not surpass the record set on the day before Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest travel day of the year.

Wiercioch said the number of passengers should taper off by Christmas Day but pick up again immediately afterward.

“The trend is the three days before Christmas are our heaviest days, and then you go down when you get to Christmas, and right after Christmas, it goes up again with people returning,” Wiercioch explained.

Passengers heading to cities with wet and snowy weather may experience some flight delays, as occurred Friday for travelers headed for Denver, Chicago and Dallas.

But the airport’s expanded facilities should ease the flow of traffic, officials said, since only a small increase in passenger loads is expected this year.

For those traveling by road, the California Highway Patrol offered this suggestion: leave early.

“Plan on it taking you a little longer than usual to get where you want to go,” said CHP spokeswoman Linda Burrus. “We expect some pretty heavy traffic out there until Christmas.”

Burrus said weather conditions might also be a factor. “We’re getting snow at the higher elevations and motorists will need chains on some highways,” she cautioned.

Burrus said that Orange County motorists should expect delays on the northbound Santa Ana and San Diego freeways as people headed toward Northern California or funneled into Los Angeles International Airport. The southbound Santa Ana Freeway should also be busy, with people traveling to San Diego and Mexico, she said.

To handle the traffic crunch, the CHP will “have extra units out there all weekend until Christmas time,” Burrus said. And she cautioned that officers will be watching for drunk drivers.

“The past couple of days, we’ve been arresting a lot of people who have been getting into the spirit a little too much,” Burrus said. “It’s pretty easy to find them this time of year.”

Last-minute shoppers should also be in plentiful supply this weekend, despite the recent downturn in the economy and slower-than-usual holiday sales, retailers said. With many people taking Christmas Eve--a Monday--off from work, shoppers will have a three-day grace period to make those last-minute purchases.