SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Despite record high gas prices and inflation, AAA predicts nearly 48 million Americans will travel over the 4th of July weekend.
Something that officials at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport say they’re already preparing for.
“We’re expecting a really really busy week. It should be a little bit busier than last year, probably 3-4 percent busier. It’s a whole lot busier than our record year in 2019, so we should see around 70,000 passengers in and out for the week next week,” explained Lori Lynah, Director of Marketing & Air Service Development at Savannah-Hilton Head International.
Officials say Thursday, June 30th will likely be the busiest travel day of the holiday weekend.
She recommends arriving two to three hours before your flight is scheduled to allow for any potential setbacks while getting to your gate.
“Anyone that’s going to be departing the airport, definitely check your airline’s app, make sure that your flights are on schedule and they haven’t had any big changes to your itinerary. If you’re going to be driving to the airport, check the traffic because you know lots of people are doing to be traveling over the holiday, not just flying,” said Lynah.
As far as delays and cancellations go, officials say a vast majority have been due to poor weather and have mainly affected flights heading to larger cities like Chicago and New York.
So far, many that WSAV’s Chase Justice spoke with Friday are thankful their trips were all on time.
“We actually had no setbacks. We were surprised that it was easy to the airport- we’re from the Boston area. I think we all planned for significant traffic. There was none and our plane left on time so, so far so good,” said Beth McDermot who was visiting for the weekend.
“Yeah security was smooth, very short lines through security and it was like a breeze,” said Tracy Boland.
Officials here want people to know that the airport is busiest during three times of the day: early mornings around 8 p.m., early afternoons around noon and late evenings around 6 p.m.