FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The Thanksgiving holiday rush was in full swing on Monday as travelers packed the Fresno Yosemite International Airport with 72 hours until the holiday.
“There was a little bit of fog, but United got us here safely,” passenger Reisa Elden told Action News about her flight from San Francisco.
Elden is in Fresno for work and is thankful she arrived on time.
“I would recommend TSA and CLEAR if you are traveling over the holidays,” Elden said. “I think today is a good travel day. It might get a little crazier Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Passengers are advised to arrive two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international departures.
Flyers should also check their wallets.
“If passengers haven’t traveled since May, Real ID is now in effect,” airport spokeswoman Vikkie Calderon said. “Travelers need a Real ID or other acceptable form of identification to get through security screening.”
Across the country, winter weather might have major impacts, from storms in the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest and the East Coast.
Some of the nation’s most popular connecting airports are bracing for a wet Tuesday.
“The airlines will push out flight status updates to their passengers if anything’s changed with their flight departure times or any changes along their itinerary,” Calderon said.
On the roads, AAA projects a record-setting 73 million people will travel by car. Coupled with recent flight reductions, the number of drivers could be even higher.
“(It’s) certainly nice to see out of Thanksgiving prices falling almost $0.10 a gallon in Fresno,” Patrick De Haan at GasBuddy told Action News.
He says drivers will see some relief at the pump this week. The average gas price in Fresno is now $4.33 a gallon, and is expected to drop even further.
“You probably will see gas prices going down another couple (of) cents between now and the end of the Thanksgiving weekend,” De Haan said. “So waiting may pay a little bit of a dividend, but it’s certainly not too big of a drop that we expect here over the next couple of days.”
Back at the airport, officials say flyers should leave extra time for parking. The cheaper economy lot is expected to fill up quickly.
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