Miami

Thanksgiving Air Travel Near Record High at MIA

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People are flying this holiday season at near record numbers at Miami International Airport.

On Sunday, more than 158,000 passengers came through the airport.

That’s almost breaking a record from 2018, when 160,000 passengers traveled to and from MIA.

As we get closer to the Thanksgiving holiday, numbers are higher than pre-pandemic levels.

132,000 passengers passed through the airport Tuesday compared to 118,000 passengers in 2019.

That’s up 12 percent.

“With an increase in passenger traffic, obviously you have an increasing security, you have an increase in airport personnel,” MIA spokesperson Jack Varela said. “And the airport is doing everything possible to make sure the passengers get to their airlines as quickly as possible.” 

Even though things have been running smoothly, passengers flying domestically are still encouraged to get to the airport 2.5 hours before their flight. And 3.5 if flying internationally.

And the airport now has monitors at the front of the line telling people how long their wait will be.

“It’s normally super packed. You’ll have huge lines to TSA. Today it’s not so bad,” said traveler Yani Rodriguez.

One thing that will definitely slow things down is when someone brings a gun to the TSA checkpoint.

Both MIA and FLL in Fort Lauderdale are seeing a record number of cases.

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