PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — It’s traditionally the busiest day of the year at airports, with experts predicting crowds approaching pre-pandemic flight records.
Typically, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is when most travelers head home, which can lead to potentially long lines at ticketing and security.
Travelers at Philadelphia International Airport said a family vacation was worth the wait.
“It’s important to me to get home for Thanksgiving to see my family, so I stuck it out,” said Stevie Collin of Detroit. She arrived at the airport at 4 a.m. to find a long line at TSA.
James McCleary said he had the longest wait since the pandemic began.
“About 30 to 45 minutes,” he said. “However, it moved quickly.”
About 4.5 million Americans will fly to their Thanksgiving destination this year, up 8% from 2021, according to AAA forecasts.
“I think in the last few years everybody’s been back to normal, they’ve been traveling well for the holidays, so it’s been pretty easy,” said Townsend Godfrey of Ocean City, New Jersey.
Despite the crowds, several travelers told Action News they had a good time at the airport.
“I mean, I’ve heard about a lot of flight delays and stuff, but I’ve actually had a pretty good experience,” said Motolani Adewale of Pine Hill, New Jersey.
Still, those were long days for people flying on vacation.
“It’s four in the morning on the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving. So I beat the whole holiday rush. It was great,” said Matthew Nunn of Massachusetts, who attends Villanova University.
He says he has big plans when he finally gets back to school.
“Sleep,” he said.
As of 11 a.m., PHL had a quiet day with no cancellations at the airport and about 34 delays in total, according to Flight Aware.
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