Some travelers at Sacramento International Airport report delays amidst busy travel weekend

SACRAMENTO – A record 119 million people are traveling during the year-end holiday period from December 21st through the first of the year, according to AAA. That’s three million more travelers than this time last year.

“Every flight was pretty much full, so it was still crowded. But it was OK,” said traveler Sonya Ellis at Sacramento International Airport.

Weather is causing delays across the country.

“Ours wasn’t delayed too bad, but we had family who had to go to other airports who couldn’t stop at their original airports and had to go to a different one and get a flight from that airport,” Ellis said.

Most of the travelers had some sort of delay, but a few got lucky.

“It’s been a great day. Everything has been on time, flight was not too bad. We got decent seats, so we’re happy,” Shawn Varney said.

AAA booking data shows flights are 4% more expensive this holiday season compared to last year.

“When we got to the airport there was very minimal parking, but once inside it was great,” Varney said.

Nearly 200,000 people are expected to travel by air through Jan. 1 in Northern California alone.

“Today was a little bit easier. We traveled out the day before Christmas Eve and that was really, really hectic,” Ellis said.

Stacey Barber, AAA’s vice president of travel said in a statement, “This year, with Christmas Day falling on a Wednesday, we’re anticipating record-breaking travel numbers the weekend before and the weekend after the holiday.”

“It could have been a lot worse,” said traveler John Ellis.

Out of those projected 119 million travelers across the nation, 90 percent of them are expected to travel by car.