South Florida Airports Expecting Crush Of Travelers On One Of The Busiest Travel Days Of The Year
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Millions of people across the country will be heading out Wednesday on one of the busiest travel days of the year, but wet, windy, and snowy weather may lead to some travel troubles.
Early morning traffic was light at Miami International Airport which is expecting 1.5 million people to pass through their terminals during the course of Thanksgiving week.
"No issues, no travel delays, I'm heading to New Jersey for the holidays to be with family," said Keith Mokher.
"No lines, no delays, curbside check-in, it seems to be pretty smooth," said Jill Collins.
"We were expecting it to be very busy in the airport but fortunately it was very peaceful," said Angela Porter of North Carolina. "TSA got us through the line very quickly. We got here safe and sound."
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Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International is expecting 800 thousand travelers between November 26th and December 2nd, or about 137,000 people each day.
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The busiest travel days will be Saturday and Sunday.
As if Thanksgiving travel wasn't bad enough, severe weather out west and in the upper Midwest is making things a little more complicated this year.
On Tuesday, more than two thousand flights were canceled or delayed across the country and it is expected to get worse on Wednesday. More than 20 million travelers are affected by some sort of weather advisory on Wednesday.
At MIA, Laurie Stein said she didn't know what to expect.
"We woke up this morning and looked at a newspaper online and it said something misery travel everywhere and I said to my husband maybe we shouldn't go. Then we said let's go anyway," she said.
Stein said when they got to the airport, it was kind of quiet and all the flights were listed as on time.
"I was really surprised because it sounded like it was going to be like travel nightmares everywhere but so far in Miami, it looks great but when we get to where we are going it might be a different story," Stein added.
Stein and her husband plan to spend their Thanksgiving holiday in Vail, Colorado.
Collins said she has a surprise planned for Thanksgiving.
"I'm flying to Atlanta, I'm surprising my parents and my brother. They think I'm not coming, I told them I couldn't make it," she said.
Collins should arrive as scheduled.
Amaru, 10, said he was flying to Chicago by himself. When told about the weather delays up north, he said he wasn't worried.
"It's snow, that's all," he said.
Airport officials advise travelers to check with their airlines about their flight status before heading out.
