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Knoxville travel tips: 7 things to do before flying from McGhee Tyson this holiday season

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Knoxville travel tips: 7 things to do before flying from McGhee Tyson this holiday season

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It might be too late to catch a great price on Thanksgiving week flights, but it’s not too late to prepare to fly out of McGhee Tyson Airport this holiday season.

Like leftover turkey between gravy-soaked bread, Thanksgiving is sandwiched between some of the busiest travel days of the entire year. Thankfully, holidays in December are slightly more spread out.

“Thanksgiving is so pushed together, and it’s a condensed travel time,” Becky Huckaby, vice president of public relations at McGhee Tyson, told Knox News. “We actually have lots of different travel times because of the different holidays throughout the month of December, so there isn’t that crunch time.”

However, with Christmas and Hanukkah overlapping for the first time in nearly two decades, closely followed by New Year’s, it’s bound to be a busy travel season all around.

Some tips for flying out of Knoxville are specific to our growing airport and some are not. Here are seven things airport staff recommend you do before flying out.

Arrive at least 2 hours before your Knoxville flight

This holiday season, give yourself the gift of time by arriving at least two hours before your scheduled departure to reduce stress in the event of long security lines or baggage snafus.

Arriving with plenty of time is the No. 1 piece of advice airport staff give to travelers at busy times, Huckaby said. The airport expects a record of more than 3 million passengers this year.

Check parking availability ahead

If you’re bringing a car to McGhee Tyson Airport for the first time in a while, you might not recognize the parking layout. On Nov. 1, the airport closed its surface lot near the terminal to begin building a $185 million parking garage.

For the summer, the airport reconfigured its parking to make space for around 1.2 million passengers. It renamed two of its economy lots by the Airport Hilton to “terminal” lots and increased their price, while adding new economy lots farther from the terminal with shuttle service.

To make sense of the changes and create a plan for parking, passengers can visit the airport’s website at flyknoxville.com to track parking prices and real-time parking availability.

“There will be plenty of parking, but you may have to plan,” Huckaby said. “That way, it saves you some time before you come out to the airport.”

Follow McGhee Tyson on social media

In addition to its website, the airport posts frequent updates to its social media pages. The airport uses the handle @flyknoxville for Facebook, Instagram and X. It can be found on YouTube @McGheeTyson and on LinkedIn as the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority.

Get bag size right for high tech TSA machines

McGhee Tyson was an early adopter of a TSA program to install X-ray machines at security checkpoints that use CT scan technology, similar to CT medical scans. The machines, installed in 2023, take 3D imagines of bags to increase security and reduce the number of bag checks.

While the machines allow passengers to keep laptops and liquids in their bags, they also require all carry-on bags to go in bins on the conveyer belt. Because their entry point is smaller than other scanners, it’s more important now at McGhee Tyson to ensure your bag is the right size for a carry-on, which varies by airline.

If your bag is too big, Huckaby said, you will have to check the bag and get in the back of the security line. Knoxville’s airport offers flights on six airlines: Allegiant, American, Avelo, Delta, Frontier and United.

Take medication in carry-on bags

Now for tips that are not specific to McGhee Tyson. The airport’s top recommendation for passenger safety is to pack medication and emergency items in a carry-on bag.

That way, if you get separated from your checked luggage or your flight is canceled, you will have the items you need with you.

Download airline apps

Next, the airport recommends travelers download the mobile app for the airline on which they are flying. Each airline has an app that provides updates on baggage, flight changes, cancellations, gate changes and more.

Since airlines control most aspects of a flight, the apps provide some information that the airport cannot.

Know which days are the busiest

A record 80 million Americans will travel for Thanksgiving this year, according to AAA, an increase of 1.7 million people compared to last year.

If you are planning to fly the Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 26 and 27) or Sunday, Dec. 1, expect larger crowds than other days. Thanksgiving Day, itself, is the least busy day to fly.

The Friday and Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 20 and 21 this year) are typically the busiest travel days in December.

There’s one other day that could be especially busy at McGhee Tyson this holiday season, but the airport doesn’t want to jinx it.

“If we have a destination where the Volunteers are playing football at a bowl game, if it’s a fly market, we’ll have more people in the terminal building,” Huckaby said.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

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