With the Thanksgiving holiday period just a week away, San Diego airport officials are advising passengers to plan ahead in light of expected record-breaking air travel, compounded by ongoing Terminal 1 construction and nearby road work.
As is customary, Tuesday and Wednesday will be the heaviest travel days for those flying to their holiday destinations next week, while the Sunday after the holiday will be the single busiest day for any Thanksgiving-related travel.
But making navigation of the airport even more challenging next week will be the ongoing heavy construction work associated with a new Terminal 1 building that has altered the familiar route in an out of the airport, officials said Monday. The new terminal isnt due to open until next year.
On top of that, there will be heavy congestion out of the airport through next Tuesday as workers install the foundation for a directional overhead sign in the median on North Harbor Drive near West Laurel Street The actual sign, which will be put in place early next month, will be visible to drivers headed westbound toward the airport and is part of a new on-airport roadway that is estimated to remove 45,000 cars from North Harbor Drive each day.
Throughout the holiday period beginning next Tuesday, its expected that as many as 460,000 people will be traveling through the San Diego International Airport, with up to 76,000 passengers forecast to arrive and depart each day. Thats a 5% increase over last year and an even bigger increase — 12.5% — compared to 2019, before the pandemic, airport spokesperson Nicole Hall said.
For those travelers who have not been to the airport in a while, the entrance to Terminal 1 looks a bit different as you drive by the new building, she added. So dont cut your travel plans close.
One bit of good news, though, is that unlike last year, when the mammoth Terminal 1 parking garage was under construction, the first phase of the facility is now available to people needing a convenient place to park.
Regardless of what airline youre flying on, you can now park and have easy access to all airlines from the two parking garages combined, Hall said. Together, the two parking plazas will offer roughly 5,000 covered spaces so many more than we could offer last year, and its only a 5- to 7-minute walk to the terminals.
No matter what mode of transportation youll be using to visit family and friends for the upcoming holiday, records will be broken, the Automobile Club of Southern California said Monday. Its projecting that nearly 6.6 million Southern Californians will travel 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving holiday travel period. Thats a nearly 2.8% increase over last year’s record number of travelers and 3.5% higher than the pre-pandemic holiday in 2019.
While the forecast period includes, for the first time, the Tuesday before and the Monday after Thanksgiving Day, the Auto Club is still able to make comparisons to previous years because the firm that helps it analyze travel trends went back to previous years and added in the two extra days, said Auto Club spokesperson Marie Montgomery.
Travel on the roads will be up by about 3% compared to 2019, but the biggest spike was for air travel — an 8% increase over 2019, the Auto Club reported. Montgomery believes that its due in part to the still lingering strong memories of people not being able to be with family during the early years of the pandemic.
Four years ago we werent able to get together, so now its even more important to take that opportunity, she said. Its about making up for the time we lost and making sure you see all your loved ones when you can.
For those driving, gas will be at its lowest price for a Thanksgiving holiday since 2020, the Auto Club said. Thanksgiving travelers in Southern California will pay the lowest average gas prices for this holiday since the pandemic year of 2020. The current price for a gallon of gas in San Diego County is $4.53. That compares to $5.13 a year ago.
According to highway analytics provided by the Auto Club, the busiest time to travel by car will be next Tuesday, from 1 to 7 p.m., although the worst traffic congestion in Southern California will come Wednesday evening on northbound Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield.
San Diego, as it is every year, will be among the top destinations for Thanksgiving travelers, along with Las Vegas.
Nationally, AAA is predicting that 80 million Americans will travel over the holiday. Thats an increase of 1.7 million over the previous year and 2 million more than in 2019.