CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As of 5 p.m. Monday, FlightAware showed nearly 300 flight delays at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Delays were seen to destinations all across the country, not just along the eastern seaboard which was soaked with rain Monday.
Airport officials said 29,920 originating passengers were expected to catch flights Monday. To put those numbers in context, officials said CLT averages 23,000 to 24,000 daily originating passengers in December. These numbers are in addition to the approximately 100,000 people who connect through CLT each day.
Passengers like Julian Roberts said they heeded advice to arrive at the airport early.
“I woke up early,” said Roberts. “You miss a flight and that ruins everything,” he said.
A record number of Americans are traveling this holiday season. Experts said more than 104 million will be driving, while almost 7 million will be flying to their holiday destination, with Monday marking the last big travel day until after Christmas.
“It’s busy. I wasn’t expecting it to be this busy on a Monday, I figured everyone would have left on Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” said George Camisa, who was flying to Denver to spend Christmas with family.
Officials at Charlotte Douglas said travel will slow down on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with 22,000 originating passengers but will immediately pick back up on Thursday and Friday with more than 30,000 originating passengers.
They said Christmas is the second busiest time of the year for Charlotte Douglas preceded by Thanksgiving. They said the two holidays differ, however, because Christmas passenger traffic is distributed over a longer period of time.
Airport officials also encouraged travelers to check parking ahead of time. They say parking will be in high demand Dec. 19 - Jan. 2 and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Be sure to view CLT’s real-time parking map or call 704-359-5555 to hear the latest parking conditions.