Holiday travel season puts pressure on BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport
BALTIMORE -- People across the country started their end-of-the-year vacations and for many, that meant catching a flight.
AAA is predicting this year's holiday travel season is going to break records. Around 132,000 Marylanders are expected to fly during this end-of-year holiday travel period, a 7% increase from 2022.
Ricky Smith, CEO and executive director at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, couldn't say for sure if this year will break records—but it's certainly on track to be one of the busiest for the airport.
If you weren't in line, then you were moving to get in line early this morning at BWI Marshall Airport. There were droves of people just trying to make their flights on time.
"It's been a bit hectic," Kaylah Estrada, who is flying to Austin, Texas, told WJZ. "[We] should've been here at midnight, even though the flight's at 6 a.m."
However, by the afternoon, things calmed down. While the number of travelers kept a steady flow, it was a trickle compared to the early morning crowds.
That was a relief for Virginia Strickler, whose family is ready to get on their cruise to the Caribbean, especially after last year when they all got caught up in Southwest Airlines' meltdown.
Between Dec. 21 to Dec. 30 last year, Southwest canceled a large number of flights in response to a winter storm. However, cancellations continued due to the airline's information technology and scheduling system.
This resulted in thousands of people being stranded across the country.
"When we got here today, we saw that the airport was very nicely occupied," Strickler said. "We were at the airport for hours and hours, just having our flight canceled. We wound up driving to Florida; it was a whole thing."
Smith said BWI Marshall is expecting more than 30,000 travelers to come through the airport on Friday and Saturday.
To ensure everyone's travel plans stayed on track, Smith made sure that necessary preparations were made—particularly making sure there was extra staff on hand.
"TSA is staffed up, so they're better prepared. The airlines are staffed up. We have more capacity with the airlines," Smith said. "I think all of that kind of adds to a more efficient process getting through the airport."
The best thing a person can do to ensure they're on time for their flight is to arrive to the airport early, Smith said.