DENVER — Thousands of travelers are taking to the skies for the Memorial Day weekend despite recent news of communication outages impacting airports like those in Newark and even Denver International Airport.
DIA projects Thursday, May 22 through Tuesday, May 27, will be the busiest stretch for the airport for the holiday.
It expects nearly 443,000 travelers will go through a security checkpoint at the airport.
Among those partaking in the Memorial Day weekend travels are the Lafrinere's, who are splitting up for a couple of days.
Brian Lafrinere and his daughter Ellie were headed to Kansas City Thursday for a STEAM tournament.
"We're headed to Globals for destination imagination," Lafrinere said. "Ellie's team is going to the Global competition in Kansas City."
Meantime, his wife, Colleen and son, Beckett, are spending the weekend in Florida.
"We didn't want to stay home by ourselves, so we decided to go to Universal Studios to ride roller coasters," Colleen Lafrinere said.
"She had the idea because they're going to their like competition, and we would just be sitting at home because I got no school left," said Beckett.
The family was one of the many making through way through the airport Thursday, and when asked whether they had any reservations about flying, their answers were quick and simple.
"Never. I've never had a bad experience with flying," Colleen said. "So it's not a concern."
Her husband shared in that feeling.
"No, not really. I fly a lot for work, so I'm here a lot," he said. "We're here this weekend, and I'll be back next week for work again, so I don't really think about it"
Just last week, Denver7 Investigates broke the story of as many as 20 pilots flying into DIA that week were unable to speak with air traffic controllers for up to six minutes due to multiple radio transmitter outages.
Denver7 Investigates
After Denver7 report, FAA admits outage impacted pilots flying into DIA Monday
Denver7 Investigates has been pushing lawmakers and officials for more information on the communication breakdown and on Wednesday, Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper told Denver7's Tony Kovaleski he is demanding answers from the FAA.
Skyler McKinley, the regional director of public affairs for AAA, says incidents like these don't seem to be giving travelers too much pause.
"In AAA data, we have not seen folks concerned about airline safety," McKinley said. "Now, there's some increasing concerns about delays, about cancelations, but those have softened too compared to where we were immediately in the wake of the pandemic, when there simply were not enough folks employed by the airlines to meet catch up with rising demand."
"So, it remains safe to travel," he added.
Which is exactly how the Lafrinere's told Denver7 they felt as they went off on their separate vacations.
"I feel like it's going to be smooth sailings," Colleen said.
