Holiday travel rush begins with more than 2 million expected at Sea-Tac

On By Littum

SEATAC, wash. — Get ready for some long lines to fly out of Seattle.

The winter holiday travel rush kicked off Thursday, with more than 2 million people expected to pass through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) in the coming weeks.

KOMO News reporter Theron Zahn was at Sea-Tac Thursday morning and noticed large lines already forming at 03:30.

“The crush has grown ever since,” he said.

Travel this year at Sea-Tac is expected to be up 2% from last year, but down about 5% from 2019’s record number.

While you might think the winter holidays are the busiest time at Sea-Tac, the summer travel season is busier.

The busiest day of the holiday season at Sea-Tac is expected to be Friday, with 172,000 people expected to arrive, depart or connect.

Through Thursday, about 164,000 travelers are expected at Sea-Tac. Travelers there said they haven’t encountered many problems.

“It’s been great. It’s been easy. We didn’t hit a lot of traffic and everything went well,” said Cole McCurdy, who was traveling to Texas.

Meanwhile, others said that even if things went smoothly, they were planning for the worst-case scenario.

“I rarely check a bag on holiday, and I did this time, so I’m nervous about it, but I always make sure I’m there ahead of time. When they suggest you be there two hours early, make sure you are there two hours early,” said Leslie Barranger.

If traveling via ferry, long queues should also be expected.

Officials expect more than 600,000 people to board a state ferry between Friday, December 20 and Wednesday, January 1. Those boarding a vehicle should plan for long lines and wait times.

SEE ALSO | TSA begins using ‘facial match’ technology at Sea-Tac airport checkpoints

For those looking to save on airfare, Expedia suggests that the cheapest days to fly are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, while the most expensive days will be from Friday to December 22.

Nationwide, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) expects to screen nearly 40 million people between now and January 2. This is an increase of more than 6% from last year.

Just a few weeks ago on December 1st, the TSA had its busiest day ever with nearly 3.1 million passengers being screened at the nation’s airports to wrap up the Thanksgiving holiday.