Travelers Find BWI Less Than Busy On Christmas Eve
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Flying to see family for the holidays this year? You might be met with delays and cancellations.
Delta and United were among the airlines that canceled hundreds of Christmas Eve flights, citing staffing shortages due in part to COVID-19 infections.
But you wouldn't know that based on how flights fared Friday out of BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Of the four Delta flights departing from Baltimore on Christmas Eve, only one was delayed. The rest left on time.
Both United Airlines flights, meanwhile, departed from BWI as scheduled.
There were minimal disruptions to other airlines' service at BWI.
So, instead of finding long lines at ticketing and security checkpoints, passengers reported a less-than-crowded airport Friday.
"I've been here many times," Yolando Henley-Perry of Maryland said. "It almost seems sweatless--no trouble."
The Transportation Security Administration screened 2,187,792 passengers at checkpoints nationwide Thursday, typically the busiest travel day before Christmas.
For perspective, that's 364,402 fewer people than what TSA saw before the onset of the pandemic in 2019.
The agency didn't expect to have updated figures for Friday's activity until Saturday morning.
As a reminder, TSA recommends arriving at the airport two hours before your departure time, packing a mask and checking your flight status ahead of time.