SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As Thanksgiving Day quickly approaches, travelers are gearing up to drive and fly to their holiday destinations. The Sacramento International Airport (SMF) is also preparing for one of their busiest travel weeks of the year.
"Beginning Sunday is when we'll start to see most of the travelers start to come through, which is a little bit different than years past," said Scott Johnston, senior public information officer with SMF.
Overall, the airport is seeing an increase in travelers post-pandemic — back to numbers that are at or above what they were in 2019, according to Johnston. SMF also recently expanded its Lyft pickup locations to keep up.
"It's called 'rematch,' and what that does is it allows Lyft drivers, just Lyft drivers not Uber, to stage at our pickup area at both terminals," said Johnston. "It expedites the waiting process."
In terms of the roadways, AAA projects 6.3 million Californians to head to their destinations by car with travel expected to ramp up over the weekend and peak next Wednesday.
"That's even more than the level of roadside traffic before the pandemic," said Julian Paredes, spokesperson for AAA. "From 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., it doesn't matter what day for the next week or so, those are gonna be the times that you want to avoid."
SMF and AAA are both reminding travelers to plan in advance for their trips and leave early.
"Plan for a lot of traffic, get your car ready for that trip because a lot of people are gonna be driving a lot of miles," said Paredes.
If you plan on parking your car at the airport, you can head to SMF's website where a real time indicator shows what parking lots are open and how many spots are available.
"We always encourage folks if it's a domestic flight to come in two hours early, maybe you want to extend that a little bit more during the holidays," said Johnston.
WATCH ALSO:
