CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Holiday travel at Charlotte Douglas International Airport is off to a busy start the week before Christmas.
According to airport officials, they serve around 66,000 passengers daily. That number, they told WCNC, will be closer to 71,000 on peak days. They said, through Jan. 2, they only forecast Dec. 24, 25 and 31 to be slower days. Otherwise, they expect large crowds the rest of the time.
"Within those days, mornings, you can always expect the early mornings to be busier," Mark Howell, a Regional Spokesperson for TSA, said.
Howell said it's a good reminder to get to the airport at least two hours before your scheduled departure.
"And when we say get to the airport, we ask you to be in the doors of the airport two hours ahead of time," Howell said. "If you are looking for parking, or if you're returning a rental car, or trying to just get into the busy part of the airport, factor those things in, in addition to checking in your bags, and getting through security."
Airport officials said extra staff will be in the lobby terminal helping passengers get to where they need to go.
Howell offered another tip about CLT's security checkpoints.
"All go into the same terminal area. So if somebody comes up to you, when you are traveling over the holidays and says, 'Hey, you may get through security faster if you move down to A or to E,' listen to them," Howell said. "They're trying to get you through security in the quickest way possible. And they do that sometimes by spreading some of that volume out based off of the checkpoints that we've got open."
Scott Keyes, CEO of Scott's Cheap Flights, told WCNC Charlotte he expects we will see a repeat of airlines operating with few cancelations and delays.
"The good news is that airlines, after that experience early in the summer, took a step further to make it so that they can operate the schedule they had promised," Keyes said.
Click here for the CLT website where you can download the app. You can check estimated security wait times. You can also see parking conditions in real time and book your parking.