Busy Holiday Travel Season Begins at Charlotte Douglas International Airport & on Roads

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Ready or not: the holiday travel season in here.  Thursday will be the busiest day for people flying out of Charlotte Douglas  International Airport.

Millions more will be driving somewhere for the holidays.

“Oh, we’re headed to San Francisco. Going to Napa Valley. And then up to Lake Tahoe,” says Lexington, NC Resident David Simons.

Simons and his family left town just in time to beat holiday travel headaches.

“We scheduled it on purpose to avoid the rush,” Simons says.

AAA says nearly five million people in the Carolinas plan to travel through New Years’.

At the airport, 34,000 passengers are expected to fly out Thursday. That’s about 10,000 more than on an average day.

Another 100,000 will connect through Charlotte. The fewest will travel Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Airport officials say prepare for longer TSA lines because of less frequent travelers.

“The wait times tend to elongate a little bit during the holidays because you’ve got people traveling with families, kids,” explains Charlotte Douglas International Airport COO Jack Christine.

One positive is expected to be airport traffic. Added lanes in the pickup area mean less congestion.

“We were actually very pleasantly surprised at the Thanksgiving rush, that we had almost no backup,” says CMPD Capt. Nathan King.

It will be a different story on the interstates. If you’re driving for the holidays, AAA suggests leaving early in the morning.

If you’re willing to travel on Christmas Day, that will be the best time to avoid back-ups.

Back at the airport, Simons says he’s glad to be on his way.

“If you can avoid it, that’s the greatest way to do it, right? Just to avoid all the rush and all the traffic, and, you know, long lines,” he says.