Busy Thanksgiving travel in full swing at Austin airport

AUSTIN, Texas - Thanksgiving is on Thursday and holiday travel is in full swing at Austin’s airport, where thousands of travelers are trying to get to their destinations.

Austin Bergstrom International Airport officials say they've increased staff to help with long lines and traffic jams.

"I came here early because I was expecting the holiday traffic," says Preshant Dewan, who was picking up travelers.

According to airport officials, there have been nearly 30,000 travelers flying in and out daily since the weekend.

"We are just trying to warn passengers depending on when their flight time is that they are likely to expect some lines at the TSA checkpoints," says ABIA public information specialist, Lesly Ramirez.

The airport suggests travelers come the standard two and a half hours early for domestic flights and three hours early for international flights.  

"We generally treat this as a kind of all-hands-on deck situation, so a lot of people you see around in vests are a combination of guest service employees, but they are also a lot of our admin staff. They are also volunteering in the terminal to just help with the queuing and with passenger control," says Ramirez.

Dewan was at ABIA to pick up family members and says he is used to the busy holiday season.

"Chaos, worry, people losing suitcases. Everybody is anxious and when they see family members everybody is happy," says Dewan.

He says he was also prepared for the construction underway at the airport from the expansion.

"It really will only impact people if they haven't traveled since those last holidays. The biggest change they will likely see is the closure of our fourth checkpoint. We worked with our partners to just add the lanes that we lost with that third checkpoint and distribute them to other checkpoints," says Ramirez.

Airport officials also recommended reserving a parking space in advance and for those picking up travelers to also arrive early due to the back-up.

"It was expected. There was a lot of traffic, even in the parking lot there were a lot of cars. We were literally lucky to get the right spot, but we have to pick up family today. We have to pick up family tomorrow," says Dewan.