Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport gears up for busy Memorial Day travel weekend

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – The first major holiday travel period of the year is upon us, and leaders at the Birmingham airport can’t emphasize enough how busy they are right now. If you’re traveling for Memorial day this weekend, remember to pack your patience.

Birmingham Airport Authority leaders say after coming off of a record year last year, things aren’t slowing down. Birmingham Airport Authority Communications Director Kim Hunt says don’t expect to just waltz right in if you’re flying out of the Magic City.

“For some reason, this last week of May, it always just kind of culminates in a lot of travel. We expected a very busy week, it has turned out to be a very busy week, but really, we’ve had a very busy year so far,” she said. “In April, the number of enplanements, which is the number of people getting on planes and flying somewhere out of this airport, we’re up 11%, which is a really robust increase.”

The growth at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport isn’t slowing down. The airport is coming off a record year of three million passengers flying out in 2023, which is up 14% from the year prior.

With that kind of growth comes growing pains. For the airport, that looks like longer wait times, according to Hunt.

“Things are generally fairly lowkey here. We don’t generally have long lines, that sort of thing, which we love about our airport. But when we’re really really busy, like this deck can fill up, and if people don’t get here an hour and a half to two hours before their flight, and if they find out it’s taking them a little longer to find a parking space, that can catch them by surprise,” she said.

It’s a surprise Clayton Wheat wasn’t going to allow himself to be caught off guard by.

“If possible, get the pre-check if you fly quite a bit and if you haven’t gotten that, do the pre-check or even the clear. It helps expedite things,” he said. “I’m always early, except for today, but I always get to the airport at least an hour and a half to two hours early. You just never know what’s going to happen with traffic, especially around the Birmingham area.”

Another sign of the growth at the airport? Southwest Airlines is adding two nonstop flights to Phoenix and Nashville to the fall schedule in an effort to see how the market responds. Hunt says it’s a sign that airlines are paying attention to what’s going on in terms of the growth at the airport.

Get news alerts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or subscribe to our email newsletter here.

Copyright 2024 WBRC. All rights reserved.