With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, airports across the country are anticipating a 7 percent increase in overall passengers.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport sees about 23,000 passengers go through security each day, but during peak travel days, like the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday and Monday afterward, that number will jump up by 7,000 to 8,000. That doesn’t include the 100,000 passengers who enter Charlotte Douglas each day through connecting flights.
Jack Christine, the Chief Operating officer at Charlotte Douglas, says the airport will ramp up the number of staff across departments to deal with the crowds.
“We have a lot more data at our disposal now than we did, even five years ago, about what those expectations are of the passenger loads, where they peak, where they don’t,” Christine said. “We try to match our staffing to that.”
TSA checkpoints and American Airlines ticket counters will open at 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 20, Wednesday, Nov. 21, and Sunday, Nov. 25, to deal with the rush.
Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 22.
