According to AAA, 46 million people are expected to fly this holiday season, and many people are still traveling this Christmas Eve.
Many people at the Corpus Christi International Airport say they would have preferred to fly days go, but weren’t able to get off work.
Some families are fleeing the snow and flocking to the Coastal Bend for warmer weather.
One grandmother picking up her family from CCIA said, “Christmas is here. That’s our routine. It’s been that way for about 20 years.”
Lee Bolt is looking forward to the holidays spent in the South Texas sun.
“Just hanging out and fishing for the next two to three weeks out of Port A and having a good time,” Bolt said.
Bolt, his wife, and their four children fly into CCIA from Detroit for Christmas every year.
This time, they had no issues. However, in the past, they haven’t been so lucky. In 2015, they spent eight hours stuck on the tarmac in Dallas.
“We’ve done this for several years, and this is the first time that all of our flights have come in early. There were no delays and no issues,” Jeni Bolt said.
Chief John Hyland oversees all safety operations at the airport and says, as of early Monday, all long-term and covered parking is full.
Travelers can still take advantage of short-term parking.
“Short term typically, there’s 50 to 100 spots available, but allow time just in case you have to look for a spot, but we should have the capacity, so you shouldn’t worry about parking,” Hyland said.
Hyland said the airport is also expecting a consistent flow of travelers on Christmas.
“Morning hours are gonna be busy. That’s gonna be the push to get out of Corpus, and then of course the afternoon, especially around the 3:00 time frame, you start getting all the people coming into Corpus, so it gets a little busier at those times,” Hyland said.
