Airports Brace for Traveling OSU Fans
By Tim Doulin, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Jan. 5–Buckeyes fans, and anyone else, flying out of Port Columbus on Saturday should make sure to pack some patience.
Most of the charter flights bound for Arizona and Monday night’s national championship college football game will leave that day.
As a result, the airport expects up to 16,000 passengers, 6,000 to 7,000 more than on a normal Saturday, security and airport officials said.
That likely means more traffic on International Gateway, bigger crowds at ticket counters and longer lines at security checkpoints.
“Saturday is the big day,” said Tom Rice, federal security director at Port Columbus.
“We ask people to be patient.”
Twenty-six more flights than usual, most of them charters, will take off Saturday for the Phoenix area, the airport said. Six charters will leave from Rickenbacker Airport.
One other charter flight departing Port Columbus that day will take an Ohio University contingent to Mobile, Ala., where the Bobcats play Southern Mississippi in the GMAC Bowl on Sunday.
To get everybody through the security checkpoints, the Transportation Security Administration will bring in 40 additional officers from airports around the state. About 140 TSA officers will be on the job at both Port Columbus and Rickenbacker.
Passengers can help by making sure they don’t pack prohibited items. Rice encouraged passengers to visit the TSA Web site, www.tsa.gov, to review what is and isn’t allowed in carry-on luggage, particularly liquids, gels and aerosols.
The rest of the airport also is gearing up.
The airport authority staff will help passengers, direct them to the correct ticket counter and answer any questions.
Food and retail vendors are setting up “tailgate areas” at concourses to provide additional food options, airport officials said.
Decorations with a Buckeyes bowl game theme will be set up, and OSU marching-band music will be piped into the airport. Rickenbacker also will be decorated with a Buckeyes theme.
Tostitos, sponsor of the Bowl Championship Series national championship game, has donated snack packs.
“We are going to make it a tailgate atmosphere and try to have some fun with it,” said Angie Tabor, airport spokeswoman.
Passenger traffic is expected to peak between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., when many charter flights are scheduled to depart, said Ike Reynolds, owner of Reynolds Travel in Columbus.
“I have seen the list of charter operations at the airport on Saturday morning, and it is just going to be a ton of people going through that airport,” he said.
Reynolds gave his charter customers a heads-up.
“We told people in our final mailings to get to the airport early, be in a good mood and be patient. It is all going to work out,” he said.
Tom DiRosario and his wife, Maud, are booked on a charter flight scheduled to leave Port Columbus about 8 a.m.
“We will be getting to the airport at 6 a.m., which means we will be getting up at about 4 a.m.,” said Mr. DiRosario, 76, of the North Side.
An avid Buckeyes fan, he has traveled to several bowl games and knows the rigors of post-Sept. 11 air travel.
“The screening process seems to be much improved,” he said. “We are well-versed on it.”
Some fans may head out to Arizona without tickets to the game in Glendale in hopes of scalping a ticket or simply to be part of the atmosphere.
“There might be some who go out to Phoenix just to be there, but it is a long way to go and a lot of money to spend,” said Sandi Nikolaus, office manager at Bexley Travel.
“The airfare is not cheap, and the hotels are all full. It would be a long way to go to not actually go to the game.”
Tickets for the game have become the highest-grossing item on StubHub, a 6-year-old Web site that bills itself as one of the largest ticket-resale companies.
The game has topped Super Bowl XL, Game 1 of the 2006 World Series and last season’s college football championship game at the Rose Bowl, Stub-Hub reported, with the average price of tickets at $1,331 as of yesterday.
Tickets on the 50-yard line on Ohio State’s side were being offered for about $2,600 each on the site.
tdoulin@dispatch.com
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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