Tulsa International Airport Expects To See Increase In Holiday Travelers

Thursday is expected to be the busiest days for travel as people prepare to visit family and friends for the Christmas holiday.

Airport officials say you should arrive early for your flight, but on Wednesday morning, that is absolutely the case as there are hundreds of people showing up for the first flights out.

Officials say this week, they are seeing even more people traveling than they did before the pandemic in 2019. Between this past Monday and January 3rd, there are 125,000 people scheduled to fly out of Tulsa.

That ends up being 25% higher than the week of Christmas two years ago.

Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Pierini from Tulsa International Airport says they are asking people to arrive two hours early for their morning and afternoon flights because of the high volume of people coming through during those peak hours.

"It's great for the airport, it's great for Tulsa to see our air traffic picking back up so much once we hit November with the holidays and new flights we've gotten here it's starting to pick back up," said Pierini.

Up to 5,000 people are expected to fly out every day with 2,000 of those going through TSA in the early morning hours on Thursday.

A reminder for those traveling on Thursday, the federal mask mandate is still in effect, so you do have to wear a mask on all planes and as soon as you get on airport property.