Friday and Saturday are two of the busiest pre-Christmas travel days of the year at OIA. Airport officials said that if people listen to some tips and put them in practice, their wait and their flying will go a lot smoother. Eleven members of the Brown family from Michigan are just beginning their Orlando Christmas vacation. So far, Stacia Brown said, it’s been hectic. “Very hectic but fun and manageable,” Brown said. “I am a planner and I like everything in order,” Francine Brown said.
With a little planning, the experts at OIA said that everyone’s trip can be fun and manageable as well. The most important time-saver, experts said, is to be ready. “When you’re going through the checkpoint, take your cell phone, take your keys and put them in your carryon item so that when you get up there have your ID out and you won’t have anything that will set off the [machine],” Parker McClellan with OIA said.
With 1.6 million people passing through the airport during the two-week holiday season, experts said that if everyone would observe the 3-1-1 rule, that would save a lot of time. “Remember to wrap up all your little items in a plastic bag,” one woman said. If your liquid container is 3.4 ounces or less, you can put it in a plastic bag and you can have one plastic bag per person.
If the container is more than that, it must go into the check bag or you will be asked to throw it away at the check point. This time of year, it’s especially important, experts said, to observe the time guidelines; arrive two hours early for domestic flights, and three hours for international flights. On Friday and Saturday, 25,000 more people than average are expected to pass through the airport.