The countdown to Christmas is on and with it comes peak holiday travel in and out of South Florida's airports where record numbers of travelers were expected.
Miami International Airport is expecting more than 2.7 million passengers during the 17-day travel period for Christmas and New Year’s Day that begins Dec. 21 and runs through Jan. 6, airport officials said Monday.
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That would be a 6.1% increase over last year’s record-breaking travel season and a daily average of nearly 162,000 travelers.
Peak travel days are expected on December 22-23, December 26-30, and January 2-6, when daily traffic is projected to exceed 165,000 travelers.
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The projection also puts MIA on track to reach a new annual record of 52 million passengers by the end of the month.
Before those peak days, officials said Sunday was the usiest single day in the airport's history.
MIA's innovation chief Jessica Marin said they're advisong travelers to get to the airport early, including three hours before domestic flights and four hours before international.
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Marin said the airport has increased employees and taken other measures to help with the holiday rush.
“We have increased the personnel through our terminal. That way, if passengers need any assistance, need a navigation, they can always go to one of our employees, as well as for, you know, crowd control," she said. "Due to the higher volume of passengers, we’ve actually had our terminal operations staff have miniature iPads. That way, they can easily help a passenger; show them our maps; help them with their boarding pass to see where their gate is."
There's also a new free exchange library in the south terminal.
“Passengers can just take a book for free, and if they have a book that they’ve already used and read, they can put it down. That way, it promotes literacy and shares the joy of flying while reading," Marin said.
