Little Rock, Arkansas – Over the next two days, thousands of people are anticipated to depart from Clinton National Airport, making this one of the busiest days for holiday travel.
People are traveling in droves to the airport to spend the holidays with their loved ones, but this is causing longer wait times, which may be avoided by making advance plans.
More than 42,000 people are anticipated to depart from Clinton National Airport between November 16 and November 26, according to spokesman Shane Carter.
“You need to be at the airport two hours before your flight. Particularly if you’re flying early morning into the early afternoon time period. You’ve got to account for finding a parking spot. Going to the ticket counter and checking your luggage and then going through TSA and remember your flight will board 30 minutes before the departure time. So, you start adding all of that up and then that two hours goes by very quickly,” Carter said.
There are wait times of up to twenty minutes or longer at TSA checkpoints.
“This week we’ve seen the lines at the TSA checkpoint slow down because passengers are bringing oversized liquids. Remember those liquids in your carry-on bag must be 3.5 ounces or less. We’ve also seen passengers bringing holiday gifts through. Do not wrap gifts if you’re bringing them through the airport because TSA will have to unwrap those packages,” Carter said.
Policies pertaining to firearms are also enforced.
“Make sure that you do not have firearms in your bags. As we’ve gone through the past several weeks, we continue to see passengers bringing guns to the TSA checkpoint and that can land you in big trouble and possibly a fine of up to nearly $15,000 dollars,” Carter said.
Carter advises going online to obtain the list of all protocols for allowed and forbidden things in order to minimize problems at the TSA checkpoint.