22 November 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Nearly 600,000 Kansans are expected to travel during the extended Thanksgiving holiday weekend. That is a two-percent increase over last year.
Most of those travelers will be going by road. AAA says 89% of Kansans are expected to drive to their destination. They’ll find gas prices in Kansas averaging $2.99 a gallon compared to $3.30 last year.
A spokesperson for AAA asks people who want to drink to find a designated driver. From 2017 to 2021, 830 people died in the U.S. over Thanksgiving because of drunk driving.
Those traveling by air have already missed one of the busiest days — Tuesday. But Eisenhower National Airport expects Saturday and the Monday after Thanksgiving to be the other busy days.
On Tuesday, there were 3,652 departing seats and 34 flights. On Saturday, there are 3,705 seats and 34 flights. On a typical November Saturday, there are 3,000 seats available. Jesse Romo, director of airports, says they expect those flights to be 85% full.
“What’s important to keep in mind when you’re traveling the holidays is to pack your patience,” Romo said. “There’s going to be a lot of extra people traveling, a lot of people who aren’t used to traveling.“
He encourages passengers to get to the airport two hours early.
“We encourage people to arrive early, make sure you get yourself a parking spot, garages been filling up, and give yourself plenty of time to get checked in and go through security,” Romo said.
He suggests people check ahead of time what they can take through TSA.
“If you know in advance what to pack and what you can’t bring, how to declare something, saves you a lot of time, everybody else when the lines are getting really long,” Romo said.
He says the busiest times at the airport are from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.