Atlanta airport bracing for holiday travel rush this weekend

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – The world’s busiest airport is set to live up to that title during the holiday travel rush this weekend as people head home from Christmas celebrations and journey out for New Year’s Eve.

As of noon Friday, there were already 230 flight delays coming into and leaving Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, but the security lines were still moving quickly.

Sean Lawlor and Xuandan Shi just celebrated their first Christmas with their baby Aidan. After visiting family all over, including in Atlanta, they were at the busy airport heading back home to Los Angeles.

“It’s nice to have little cozy holidays moments,” Shi said.

The Friday after Christmas is expected to be one of the busiest days of the holiday travel period, both in the air and on the road. Monday the 30th will be the last of the three busiest days during this holiday travel season.

AAA projects 119 million people will travel 50 or more miles from their home until Jan. 1st, a record number. In another possibly new record, eight million Americans are forecasted to fly while traveling.

“We were kind of bracing for it with it being a work day, we thought it would be a little bit bad. But it wasn’t bad at all. So far, so good,” said Luke Giegerich.

“We’ll see what happens at security,” added Jordan Holmes.

Holmes said this was her first time traveling around the holidays.

“I’ve never been to the airport around Christmas,” she said. “It looks normal. Crowded, but it’s Atlanta.”

As Friday morning went on, the security checkpoint wait time crept up from five minutes to ten, to 18 minutes at its longest. With storms slowly moving towards Atlanta over the weekend, the crowds could grow, along with potential delays.

But on Friday, most travelers were pleasantly surprised.

“I mean it is a little crazy, but nothing I haven’t seen before,” said Aiden Esval.

He and William Pyle are on their way to the Air Force Academy.

“It’s been pretty chill. My parents woke me up pretty early and there was no traffic,” said Pyle.

If you are flying out of Atlanta over the weekend, leave plenty of time to check in, check your bag and get through security so you don’t have to rush to your flight.

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