ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando International Airport is seeing one of its busiest travel weekends of the year, but so far, the holiday rush appears to be moving along without major headaches.
News 6 checked in at MCO Friday, when airport officials expected nearly 198,000 passengers to pass through the airport.
Despite the large crowds, security lines remained relatively short throughout much of the day.
“I thought it was going to be way worse,” one traveler told News 6.
Another family said they arrived extra early expecting long waits, only to find security moving so quickly they decided to sit outside the checkpoint for a while before going through.
While security checkpoints stayed manageable, baggage claim was noticeably busier as visitors arrived in Central Florida for the holiday weekend.
Airport officials say they expect more than 1.4 million passengers to travel through MCO between Thursday and Monday. They continue to encourage travelers to arrive at least two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international flights, check their flight status before leaving home and allow extra time for parking and airline check-in.
AAA projects a record number of Americans will travel over the Independence Day holiday period, but at least through Friday afternoon, travelers at Orlando International Airport told News 6 the experience has been smoother than they expected.