Airport reinforces security as more people travel ahead of Thanksgiving

A busy travel day for many people on the Central Coast, with Thanksgiving less than a week away. But a week after terrorist attacks in Paris and an attack in Mali just Friday renewed concern about safety and airline travel. News Channel 5 met with security officials at the Monterey Regional Airport to see how those concerns are being taken very seriously. This week the Regional Airports police department trained for an aviation security threat. No real threats have been made, but the airport wants to be prepared especially as more people fly out of the Central Coast for the holidays.

AAA expects nearly 6 million Californians to travel this holiday. About 8% more are traveling by plane. Some people flying out of the Monterey Regional Airport said the best time to fly is the week before Thanksgiving.

“Since I’ve had children the last couple of years we’ve tried to go during the least amount of craziness and that works better for us. So this is kind of a new thing going early,” said holiday traveler, Bronwyn Nielson. Anton Mink was traveling back home to Los Angeles and said beating the rush isn’t the only benefit.

“Tickets are way more expensive next week and i just wanted to make sure that I got home ok,” said Mink.

A lot of folks had the same idea. The airport has a total of 22 inbound and outbound flights on Friday and most are completely booked. Airport officials said they’re prepared for the holiday frenzy.

“We don’t short staff during the holidays. We certainly understand that people travel on days that are important to them and are holidays and certainly we have to be here to make sure everything is working properly,” said Airport Executive Director, Michael LaPier.

The airport has 13 police officers on staff and they said it’s important to make their presence known especially during the holidays.

“There are things going on in the world that everyone is and should be concerned about and failing to prepare for that or plan for that or to look at that and to say that it affects you wherever you are even here in Monterey would be a mistake,” said Airport Police Chief, Jeff Hoyne.

If you do plan on taking a flight out of the Central Coast, airport officials suggest you get to security with plenty of time.