Holiday travel surge heats up at RDU but travelers stay enthused

MORRISVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) — Travel experts say millions of North Carolinians will hit the road and skies this week ahead of the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays, traveling in potentially record-breaking numbers. The peak of holiday travel this year is forecast to take place between this past weekend and New Year’s Day, with 3 and a half million North Carolinians expected to travel more than 50 miles.

“My wife and I aren’t big travelers, big fliers, especially on the holidays. We like to stay put,” said Keith Faivre of Cary, who was at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Monday to pick up his daughter who was flying in from New York.

She was one of the thousands of passengers who passed through RDU on Monday as the holiday travel surge hit its peak.

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“They’ve been out of the house for a while now, so it’s good to have them come once a year. Especially my daughter who can’t make it down here as much as she likes,” Faivre said.

Alex Edwards flew into RDU as well, returning to his home state to visit family after moving to Florida.

“We’ve got family – I went to East Carolina, we’ve got family all over North Carolina. But really, the airports weren’t too bad today, I saw on the news down there that it was worse yesterday,” Edwards said.

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At RDU, three of the four on-site parking locations are booked full online through the week, and TSA is advising passengers to build in added time to deal with longer-than-usual security lines.

For travelers leaving home for the holidays, it’s a welcome chance to unplug.

“We’re doing Paris. We’re also doing Brussels and London in there. So my daughter’s going to have her 9-year-old birthday party at the Harry Potter Museum. So just very excited about that,” said Daniel Saltzberg of Durham, who’s traveling to Europe with his wife and young daughters.

It’s not how the family would typically spend the holidays, but for travelers going across the state — or an ocean — the season’s spirit is at a high.

“We’ve never taken a big trip like this. You know, to Europe or and it was quite fancy with the kids. So I think it’s it’s going to be really fun to do this. You know, a lot of family time together,” he said.