Sunday will be the busiest day for Thanksgiving-related travel, and San Diego airport officials advise passengers to plan ahead.
"We encourage people to check their flight to make sure it's on time, and we also encourage people to give themselves enough time to get to the airport," airport spokesperson Nicole Hall said on Friday.
Travelers going through San Diego International Airport experienced more than 100 flight delays for routes in and out of the city on Thanksgiving Day.
Heavy rain and snow in other parts of the country were cited for the 150 flight delays, but there were no reported flight cancellations at the San Diego airport on Thanksgiving Day, according to the airline tracker FlightAware.
On Friday, 42 flights were delayed. No cancellations were reported.
Throughout the holiday period that began Tuesday, it's expected that as many as 460,000 people will travel through the San Diego airport, with up to 76,000 passengers forecast to arrive and depart each day.
That's a 5% increase over last year and an even bigger increase - 12.5% - compared to 2019, before the pandemic, Hall said.
Making navigation of the airport even more challenging this weekend is the ongoing heavy construction work associated with a new Terminal 1 building that has altered the familiar route in an out of the airport, officials said. The new terminal isn't due to open until next year.
But unlike last year, when the mammoth Terminal 1 parking garage was under construction, the first phase of the facility is now available to people needing a convenient place to park.
So there is more parking available.
If you're driving, AAA specifically says peak congestion times include the southbound Interstate 15 from Palm Springs to San Diego on Saturday at 4:45 p.m. as well as the following driving periods:Saturday: 4 to 8 p.m.Sunday: noon to 6 p.m.Monday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
