For Thanksgiving travel from Pittsburgh, the only remedy is time

AAA is predicting a record-breaking 80 million people nationally will travel 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving holiday.

“This is more people than we’ve ever seen traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Jim Garrity, director of public affairs for AAA East Central. “That goes back to when AAA started tracking these numbers, going back to the early 2000s.”

Garrity says if you’re driving, peak travel times will be midday on Tuesday, Nov. 26 and Wednesday, Nov. 27. You may be able to avoid the heaviest traffic if you’re able to shift your driving to before 10 a.m. or after 5 or 6 p.m.

“Giving yourself an extra hour can make you a safer driver because if you’re not stressed out behind that wheel, you don’t have that … cloudy judgment which could lead you to do unsafe things behind the wheel, like distracted driving, aggress driving, speeding, tailgating, cutting people off,” Garrity said. “Making sure you give yourself plenty of time–it’s putting yourself in a better position to remain calm.

If you’re flying, Pittsburgh International is expecting 300,000 passengers to pass through the airport.

Public affairs director Bob Kerlik says that the crowd is comparable to years past, but travel overall for the year is up 8.5%.

“People are asking why the lines are longer this year,” Kerlik said. “And that’s because we have more air service this year at Pittsburgh International Airport than we had last year.”

Kerlik said Delta Air Lines has added new service to Salt Lake City. Allegiant Air recently announced additional service to Phoenix and British Airways announced additional nonstop service to London.

Flying or driving, the only remedy is allowing plenty of extra time. Kerlik says the highest-traffic days will be Wednesday, Nov. 27 and Sunday, Dec. 1, though every day will be busy this week. He adds the busiest times are in the early morning, from 5 to 9 a.m.

For smoother travel, Kerlik has the following tips:

• Travelers should make sure they are standing in line at the ticket counter two full hours before their flights are scheduled to depart.
• From 4 to 7 a.m., Monday through Friday, TSA Precheck is exclusively available at PIT’s alternate checkpoint.
• Know what’s in your bag. Avoid packing items prohibited by the Transportation Security Administration. 
• If you are bringing gifts, make sure they are unwrapped, to avoid delays if TSA needs to inspect the items.