CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Millions of people packed their bags to travel for Thanksgiving weekend. As the holiday wraps up, you can expect to see more people on the roads and a busy airport.
This year is projected to be the third busiest for Thanksgiving travel since AAA started tracking in 2000.
“Coming back here.. it's pretty busy,” said Colin Corban
Charlotte Douglas International Airport expects to serve more than 822,000 passengers throughout the Thanksgiving week. Sunday and Monday will see over 72,000 passengers each.
So if you’re catching a flight, give yourself some extra time to make it to your gate
“When you are coming… yes the line is all the way to the entrance of Charlotte Douglas, so expect to be in your car for a while,” said Tony Virella.
Some cut time by paying to park. Raja Chadalawad got to the airport a few hours early to drop his daughter off for her flight.
“There was a lot of traffic on I-485,” he said. “Coming into the airport there was some traffic but we thought we did the hourly parking we could get in a little faster.”
Jason Nweke got caught up in the Sunday morning rain.
“It was crazier coming back because now we have this weather going on, so turbulence in the sky,” said Nweke. “It was crazy.”
Now it’s a waiting game for ride-share prices to come down.
“I live about 30 mins from the airport and uber prices are looking at 100 dollars right now,” said Nweke.
Meanwhile, nearly 49 million people are expected to travel by car according to AAA.
Marty Miller is one of them, driving with his wife from Florida to North Carolina to see their son.
“It’s more comfortable, more convenient,” said Miller. “We went to Spartan and saw the Christmas parade and anyone who didn’t see it should be jealous.”
Lisa Ginquitti is driving down from New York to Florida and said it is smoother than she expected. However, she spotted several distracted drivers
“There were a lot of accidents, so that is where we hit most of our traffic,” explained Ginquitti. “A little touch and go touch and go… Other than that the traffic was pretty good even with it being a holiday weekend.”
It's a road trip she said was worth the miles
“It’s def well worth going down and seeing our family because we don’t get to see them all the time.”
Whether you’re flying or traveling by car planning ahead and packing some patience will save you some headaches.