The Christmas travel season at Syracuse's Hancock International Airport has started, and lasts through January 5.
"We do expect that this coming Friday, the 19th, will be our busiest departure day," said Jason Terreri, Executive Director of the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority. "We have roughly about 5,300 departing seats going out on that day. To put that in perspective, on average we have about 4,500 seats departing for that same time period."
Terreri said many of those flights will be going out in the early morning.
"Our mornings will be the busiest time of travel for this airport," he said. "Roughly 30% of all of our flights will depart before 7 a.m. every day during that period. So plan to arrive at the airport at least two hours before your flight departs. We will be very busy in the mornings especially."
Terreri said there will be plenty of parking, because the airport has added parking spaces. That and more information information can be accessed from the airport’s web site. He also noted that travelers will notice a recent terminal expansion with three new gates, additional seating and charging stations, and new places to get a bite to eat.
Overall, he expects this holiday season to have fewer flyers compared to recent record breaking years.
"We're down 4,000 seats over where we were last year," said Terreri. "A lot of that's attributed to Frontier pulling down a lot of their service, where every other airline has actually added service. So we're happy with where we're at right now."
