Editor’s Note: This is the kick-off story to the Wheel’s weekly business and economy coverage. Every Friday, we will examine how the economy and national business trends are affecting members of the Emory community.

With airport fees continuing to rise, College sophomore Gouthami Rao will not be spending Thanksgiving with her family.

Instead of flying about two hours to Chicago, she will drive six and a half hours to Orlando, Fla., to stay with her friend. After traveling to Chicago last year for Thanksgiving, Rao decided it was not worth the more expensive airline ticket or the travel time to return to Chicago for Thanksgiving this year.

“It’s just cheaper this way,” Rao said. “I’m kind of sad I’m not going home this year, but it didn’t make sense to go home.”

Rao is one of several students opting not to fly home for Thanksgiving because of how expensive it is to travel during the holiday season. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, several airlines such as Delta and US Airways have raised the price of round-trip tickets by about $10 because of the economic recession and the decreased travel demand.

Those traveling from the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta must pay an additional $4.50 passenger facility charge to help fund airport projects such as the construction of an international terminal set to open in 2012. An Oct. 21 Associated Press article suggested that students can save hundreds of dollars by traveling via car instead of flying during holiday seasons such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.

For Goizueta Business School junior Josh Izaak, eating dinner with his family in Florida is no longer a tradition and he has not been home for this holiday since freshman year. He said if flights for Thanksgiving were cheaper, he would consider going home. The prices, combined with the limited amount of time he would be able to spend at home, have led him to make plans to drive with his friend to Nashville, Tenn., for the holidays.

“I can forgo seeing my family for a few days during Thanksgiving because I will see them two weeks later,” Izaak said. “It’s a bummer, but I realize exams come pretty quickly after I get back and then I can go home.”

International students like College sophomore Nihar Thadani tend to stay on campus for Thanksgiving because of costs and travel time. Between the approximately $40 cab ride to the airport and expensive plane tickets, going home has become difficult, Thadani said. She added that she is considering staying on campus for winter break next year to save money and avoid dealing with the Atlanta airport.

“The cost of tickets is becoming more of a problem,” Thadani said. “Also, security is such a pain and I’ve missed flights before because of it.”

Delayed flights are also an issue at Hartsfield-Jackson according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which ranked the Atlanta airport last among 31 major airports in terms of on-time arrival performance in September.

For international flights, Thadani said she usually arrives at the airport about five hours before her departure time and takes two connecting flights to get home.

College junior Arjun Seth, who lives in India as well, said it is never worth it for him to fly home for Thanksgiving or spring break.

“I don’t fly back as often as I would like because it’s so expensive to fly home,” Seth said. “It’s a financial burden, no doubt.”

Even when students decide to spend hundreds of dollars on plane tickets, there is still the possibility of often expensive flight-change fees. When College sophomore Matt Stylianou wanted to change his flight last year, he found out that he would have to pay the difference in price between the two flights, in addition to a $150 flight-change fee.

“Even though the flight was inconvenient, I wasn’t going to pay that much for a little more convenience,” Stylianou said.

Though she wishes she could spend Thanksgiving in the Windy City with her family, Rao said she is glad driving to Florida will spare her some stress over booking flights.

“There was a point last year I would check Thanksgiving tickets every day to find the cheapest ones,” Rao said. “Even though it’s a national holiday, Thanksgiving isn’t big in my family so I’m glad I don’t have to check ticket prices all the time.”

— Contact Molly Davis.