“AAA is anticipating the busiest Thanksgiving travel holiday since 2005. Breaking that down to air travel, locally here over 62,000 Philadelphia area residents will travel to their Thanksgiving destination by air. That’s a 5% jump over last year,” says Jana Tidwell with AAA.
The insane groups from the small morning hours failed out by this afternoon, clearing a path for a simple excursion through the security checkpoint in Philadelphia International Airport.
“So far it’s been pretty smooth. We just got tickets downstairs and it doesn’t look like the line is terribly long, so it looks like it will be smooth sailing,” said Arnav Jagasia of Villanova.
TSA had lines moving all through security checkpoints, as families arranged to set off to see their friends and family.
Nancy Hagan left for Philadelphia early at the beginning of today in Orlando.
“It can take 10 minutes or 2 hours to get through security, so I usually fly the first flight out to avoid all that,” she said.
Billy Flanigan additionally flew in from Orlando.
“This is my 22nd year doing the parade in Philadelphia! 100th anniversary, this is a big year for us! So excited to be here.”
He says the current year’s drive to Philadelphia was almost scary-good.
“I was so surprised, it was a ghost town in the Orlando International Airport I thought something might have been wrong because it was so easy to get through,” said Flanigan.
Regardless of positive reviews to this point, the rush isn’t actually finished at this point.
“Today is busy, but it’s only the third busiest day of the Thanksgiving travel week. So today, we expect over 92,000 people to come in and through in and out of the airport. On the weekend it’s going to be even busier. Over 96,000 people on Saturday and almost 100,000 on Sunday,” said Heather Redfern a Philadelphia International Airport spokesperson.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No News View 360 journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.