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San Diego Airport braces for Thanksgiving travel surge as construction continues

76,000 people are expected to pass through daily on Thanksgiving week, an estimated five percent increase over last year.

SAN DIEGO — With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, San Diego Airport officials are urging travelers to prepare.

"Every year at Thanksgiving, we expect more people coming through the airport,” said airport spokesperson Nicole Hall.

Hall says come Thanksgiving week, 76,000 people are expected to pass through daily, which is an estimated five percent increase over last year.

“We anticipate our busiest day is to be that Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and then the very busiest day is the Sunday following Thanksgiving, which is December 1st," said Hall.

Holiday crowds are nothing new, but if you haven't been to the San Diego airport in a while, it's changed over the past few years.

In 2021, construction began on a brand new Terminal 1.

That's led to added congestion and confusion over new routes in and out, as well as fewer parking spaces.

While the entire Terminal 1 project won't be complete until 2028, portions of it are.

This past August, the Terminal 1 parking plaza opened, adding some much needed spaces.

"We are so excited to bring San Diego a just under 3000 new parking spaces, about 2800 parking spaces in the first phase. This next summer in 2025, we’ll open up the second phase and will offer an additional 5000 parking spaces," said Hall.

Hall suggests people book parking in advance, saying bookings are already coming in for Thanksgiving week.

If you don't want to Uber or park, there's a free shuttle service to the airport from the Old Town Transit Station.

As always, give yourself extra time to get to the airport and through security.

And, if you don't travel much, make sure you're up to date on what the TSA restrictions are.

"Go ahead and check out that TSA website. They have a whole list of information on what you can bring, not bringing liquids, the size of liquids that you can bring. And one of the things that they encourage, and we encourage too, is if you have things that you need access to and you're planning to check your bags, make sure that you put it in your carry on," said Hall.

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