Charlotte Douglas International Airport prepares for busiest Thanksgiving travel season ever
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Charlotte Douglas International Airport will be packed with Thanksgiving travelers.
Why it matters: CLT, one of the world's busiest airports, is on pace for a record-breaking year of passenger traffic. This comes after it set a new record in 2023 with 53.4 million passengers, per airport officials.
What to expect: 1.02 million passengers are expected to depart CLT between Thursday, Nov. 21, and Monday, Dec. 2, per airport officials. That's up 7% from last year.
- TSA will have 17 lanes open during holiday travel and there will likely be longer security wait times during peak screening hours (5am-10am and 2pm-6pm), per TSA spokesperson Dan Velez.
- If you're going through security at CLT, expect Tuesday, Nov. 26, Saturday, Nov. 30, and Sunday, Dec. 1, to be extra busy, per TSA. You can find wait times here.
Zoom in: CLT is transitioning its Checkpoints from A-E to ones designated 1-3 and will include upgraded technology. Checkpoint 2 is under construction and is expected to open in late spring/early summer 2025.
What's new: The airport opened shuttle bus lanes at the departure level earlier this month and skybridges over the summer, which will help with traffic flow.
- There are also 10 new gates on Concourse A that opened in September (Delta Sky Club will open its first Charlotte location next month).
- Olde Mecklenburg Brewery's new airport location is now open. Find the full-service restaurant and bar in Concourse D, across from gate D6. It's open from 6am-11pm.
- The airport added a Royalty Program, which rewards passengers who book parking on parkCLT.com or on the airport's app.
- Go deeper: Everything you need to know about parking at Charlotte's airport
Between the lines: Traffic proved horribly troublesome for those making their way to the terminal last year.
- "This year will be different than last year," CLT's chief operating officer Jerome Woodard told reporters Thursday.
- Adding shuttle bus lanes frees up space for cars dropping people off. Opening the skybridges helps get people to their cars without crossing lanes of traffic, keeping foot traffic from interfering with vehicle traffic. There will be more airport staff and law enforcement, too.
- Woodard says they're in a much better place to manage traffic this year. "This year, we are very much proactive and are placing assets so that we can manage traffic as it comes, as opposed to reacting when traffic backs up," Woodard says.
The big picture: CLT will look very different than it did this time last year, from new ticket counters to how some passengers enter the airport to the location of TSA PreCheck, which is now at Checkpoint A and Checkpoint 1.
Go deeper: Definitive guide to CLT Airport — Where to eat, how to kill time and skip lines