The holiday travel season officially kicked off Friday, with AAA predicting a record number of Americans will fly and drive between now and January 1.
DFW Airport said it expects to see five million travelers pass through during that time.
It’s encouraging those who do to allow plenty of time.
“We are expecting busy roads, busy curbs, busy terminals for the next two weeks through the holidays,” said spokesperson Rob Hemler.
With the countdown to Christmas officially on, lines began to build in DFW’s Terminal A, though those who came prepared for the worst on Friday afternoon were pleasantly surprised.
“We were kind of expecting it, but it’s not been bad at all. Especially in this terminal, because the traffic is always terrible, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad either,” said Katie McEnry.
“I was expecting a lot more people to be very honest, so it was very easy. It took about 15 minutes,” said Mario Bazan.
Bazan prepared by arriving extra early for his flight to Rio.
DFW encourages passengers to add 60 to 90 minutes to their typical travel plans over the next couple of weeks.
“At minimum, we encourage customers to get here at least two hours before domestic flights and three hours if they’re flying internationally,” said Hemler.
That’s in part due to the construction that snarled Thanksgiving travel.
In response, the airport opened a new right-hand exit to Terminal A more than 20 days ahead of schedule.
It also made changes to how traffic is routed through Terminal C, though a line of vehicles still snaked onto International Parkway on Friday evening.
“Cars were on top of each other. It was ridiculous,” said Frank Oden.
Oden was among several travelers who instead chose to enter through A, bracing to join more than 122-million Americans expected to travel in the coming days.
DFW encourages travelers to utilize DART’s silver or orange lines or the Trinity Metro Texrail to avoid clogging the curb and roads in and out of the airport.