While many South Florida families spent Christmas Day at home opening gifts or gathering around the table, thousands of travelers marked the holiday shuffling through airport terminals. However, many said the experience was smoother than expected.<\/p>\n
At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Christmas Day travel brought in a noticeably calmer pace, with lighter crowds and nearly empty TSA checkpoints compared to the busy days leading up to the holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot busy at all,\u201d said Sapir Davidov, who flew into Broward from New York City. \u201cThe plane was fully booked, but the airport wasn\u2019t busy. The Starbucks line was quick, everything was quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other passengers echoed that sentiment, calling the holiday itself a travel advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were talking about how simple everything was,\u201d said Isabelle Arbeiteman. \u201cThere were hardly any lines. We were worried, but it was a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some, it was their first time flying on Christmas Day, but they said they had an epiphany that it is strategic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my first time, so I was a little anxious,\u201d said Alaor, visiting from New York City. \u201cBut it ended up being good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The smoother travel experience wasn\u2019t limited to South Florida. Travelers arriving from Atlanta, Georgia, home to the world\u2019s busiest airport, also reported minimal delays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe airport in Atlanta was really easy and really quick to go through,\u201d said Diana Nelson, visiting from Georgia. \u201cI have no complaints so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nelson said it took her 20 minutes to get through TSA.<\/p>\n
Airport officials expect more than 2.1 million travelers to pass through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport during the year-end holiday travel period, averaging more than 124,000 passengers per day. Officials say the busiest travel days largely occurred before Christmas, with lighter crowds on the holiday itself.<\/p>\n
Fort Lauderdale continues to be a popular holiday destination, especially for visitors escaping colder weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust feeling great spending time with family and being able to decompress,\u201d said Tony Maraschiello, visiting from Canada. \u201cWe\u2019re from Canada, so the warm weather is really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others say spending the winter holidays in South Florida has become a tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery winter I come down to stay away from the ice and the cold,\u201d Alaor said.<\/p>\n
Airport officials say travelers heading out later this week or around New Year\u2019s Eve should expect busier terminals again as holiday travel picks back up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many South Florida families spent Christmas Day at home opening gifts or gathering around the table, thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1191,249,251,1771,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-95833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-christmas","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","11":"tag-fort-lauderdale-hollywood-international-airport","12":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}