Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Braces For Busiest Day In Its History

Phoenix Sky Harbor airport today "expects its busiest day ever as Super Bowl and Waste Management Phoenix Open fans leave town in droves." An estimated 180,000 passengers will pass through the airport, "compared with 140,000-150,000 on the day before Thanksgiving, traditionally the airport's busiest day of the year" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 2/2). CBSSports.com's Jason La Canfora: "Phoenix airport surprisingly calm and efficient for early AM post Super Bowl. Guessing it may be due to all the cancelled flights back East" (TWITTER.com, 2/2).

Ahead of Super Bowl XLIX, traffic "slowed to a near standstill on the approach" to Univ. of Phoenix Stadium around midday as "lines of cars waited to enter parking lots." Some fans "gave up and hoofed it a mile or more, while others crowded into buses, waving flags and hats to motorists still creeping along surface streets." Arizona Department of Transportation spokesperson Caroline Carpenter said that "coordinating traffic went roughly according to plan" (AZCENTRAL.com, 2/2).