Record-breaking travel expected at Hartsfield-Jackson today
If you’re flying out of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport today, you should build in plenty of extra travel time.
This is shaping up to be the busiest travel day of at least this year, and possibly ever, at the world’s busiest airport, spokesman Reese McCranie said. Airport officials project that by the end of the day, at least 88,000 people will have passed through Hartsfield-Jackson.
“That’s certainly record breaking for us,” said McCranie.
Prior to today the record for the year so far was 80,000 people on Columbus Day, he said. More than 500,000 people have gone through security checkpoints for the entire Thanksgiving travel period that began last Monday and ends this Monday.
Due to heightened concerns over possible terror threats around the world, extra security is in place as thousands of travelers make their way through the airport at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Travelers are seeing an increased law enforcement presence throughout the airport today, from Atlanta Police Department officers outside the main terminals to a full compliment of Transportation Safety Administration officers inside. All TSA security lanes are open and “they are running at full speed,” said McCranie.
“And they’re alert so that makes me feel they’re … watching out for us,” traveler Carolyn Fernandez told Channel 2 Action News.
If you usually cut it close by getting to the airport an hour or 90 minutes before your flight, don’t try it today. This morning security wait times were running between 10 to 20 minutes. Between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m., that wait period is expected to double. TSA says you should allow at least two and a half hours before your flight to get through security and make it to your gate on time.
“Get here extra early,” McCranie said.
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Rosalind Bentley is an award-winning feature writer focusing on culture, arts and sometimes food, as they are expressed and experienced in Atlanta. She is a two-time James Beard Award finalist and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
