HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Persons are chickening out for what’s shaping as much as be a doubtlessly record-breaking weekend of journey.
As dozens of vacationers head to their locations forward of the Independence Day vacation, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is bracing for unprecedented site visitors volumes. Leaders say a decades-old document may very well be damaged on Friday, June 28.
Richmond Worldwide Airport (RIC) officers are reporting document journey, however they’re additionally involved concerning the improve in weapons being introduced into the airport.
TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein stated the administration expects to display screen greater than 32 million folks between Thursday, June 27 and Monday, July eight at airports throughout the nation.
In keeping with Farbstein, that determine represents a rise of greater than 5% over journey through the 2023 Independence Day holidays.
“Final Sunday, TSA screened 2.99 million passengers, which was the busiest day in our historical past, and it’s very doable that at the moment we’ll hit the three million mark nationwide. And that might be fairly a milestone,” Farbstein stated.
The TSA is highlighting these document numbers as summer season journey is anticipated to hit a fever pitch at the moment. Officers say seven of the 10 busiest journey days ever recorded occurred prior to now 30 days.
Troy Bell, RIC's director of air providers advertising and marketing and growth, stated the numbers domestically are additionally staggering and have been for months.
“We've had 15 straight document months in Richmond,” Bell stated. “So if we're not [at] A document tomorrow or at the moment with the site visitors, we can be fairly shut. This has been an incredible summer season and we hope the momentum continues all through the summer season.”
Each leaders say they have to stay more and more vigilant about what folks deliver with them to catch their flight.
“You may't journey with any sort of fireworks. I imply, no black cats, no M-80s, not even little sparklers or poppers you can make. None of that travels on board an airplane, no.” [in a] checked baggage, not in your carry-on, simply depart it at dwelling,” Bell stated.
Whereas authorities are holding their eyes peeled for explosives this vacation season, they are saying they won’t cease searching for firearms, which have elevated in numbers this 12 months.
“In Richmond, we truly bucked the pattern final 12 months. We moved again, so we noticed fewer weapons, however [for] firearms up to now in 2024, we’ve already discovered extra this 12 months than we discovered all of final 12 months,” Bell stated.
Throughout this vacation season, there can be quite a lot of site visitors not solely at airports, but in addition on the roads. In keeping with the American Car Affiliation (AAA), greater than 60 million folks will journey by automobile and one other 5 million will use trains and different technique of transport.