Houston travelers prepare for busy Memorial Day weekend

Houstonians are ready for summer travel, or at least we wish we were!

SEE ALSO: 2024 travel tips if you’re planning an adventure!

Highways and airports will likely be congested over the next few days as Americans head for Memorial Day weekend getaways, just as they return home. In Houston, the number of people passing through will exceed previous years

AAA predicts this will be the busiest early summer weekend in nearly 20 years, with 43.8 million people expected to travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday. The Transportation Security Administration says as many as 3 million people could pass through airport checkpoints on Friday alone.

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And that’s just a sample of what’s to come. U.S. airlines expect to carry record numbers of passengers this summer. Their trade group estimates that 271 million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31, breaking the record of 255 million set – you guessed it – last summer.

MORE: Remember last year’s Memorial Day travel jams? Chances are it will be much worse this year

And there is a reason behind this increase. Ultimately, airlines continue to add flights and destinations. KPRC 2 reporter TJ Parker spoke with some people who had a head start on their holiday travels Thursday morning and it seems everyone at Hobby Airport thought they’d beat the crowds.

“There were more people,” Patricia Martin said. “I noticed that everyone had the same thing in mind: arrive early and so I stayed up late to pack just to make sure I had everything. »

“You just have to have a lot of patience and know that everyone is trying to get to the same place and get to a destination and you just have to have a lot of patience,” said another traveler, Beth Turner .

Here are some tips if you’re traveling this weekend:

• Reserve your parking in advance; more passengers means fewer parking spaces.

• Construction work is also underway at Bush Airport, although some of it will be paused for the holidays. So they are asking people to arrive at least three hours early.

• Peak hours are between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.