The Thanksgiving travel rush is already underway.
Some have been worried screening might take longer with more passengers flying and a looming Monday deadline for federal workers to be vaccinated.
The TSA federal security director in Connecticut told us recently that while he couldn’t provide an exact number, they had a very high compliance rate with TSA agents at Bradley International Airport.
And he did not see the vaccination requirement having an impact here.
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Nationally, TSA says it is prepared for this busy holiday week.
Bradley is expecting 170,000 people to fly in and out of the airport during this Thanksgiving travel season. It started on Friday and ends next Sunday.
We spoke with passengers about to catch a flight about their expectations and preparations for flying during this busy time.
Local
“I’m here about two hours early which is not what I normally do. But don’t want anything wrong to happen and make sure things go fine,” said Julian Johnson of San Francisco.
“When we were driving up here I was saying, ‘wow, we’re here already.’ And I thought there would be so many more people here but there aren’t. So it’s good,” said Karen Buck of Kansas City, Kansas.
The airport suggests arriving at the terminal at least 90 minutes before your flight and remember to mask up.
The busiest travel days are expected to be Tuesday, Wednesday and next Sunday.
TSA is reporting more than two million people daily passing through checkpoints nationwide in the past few days. That’s about double the number from last year and is approaching pre-pandemic levels.
