Travelers rush in and out of Monterey Regional Airport to start busy stretch of holiday travel

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION-TV): Christmas is almost here and a lot of people on the Central Coast will start traveling to their destination.

AAA reports more than 115 million people are expected to travel 50 miles or more during the holidays. A lot of travelers are excited to spend the holidays with their families.

Monterey Regional Airport is one of many airports seeing people rush in and out of as the holiday travel season kicks off.

AAA said the number of domestic travelers is projected to go up by 2.2% compared to last year.

"If we go back a year, it looks as though December will be somewhere as though as 3,000 more passengers than we had last December," said Michael La Pier, Executive Director for Monterey Regional Airport, "So, that gives you an indication, Thanksgiving was almost 4,000 more."

And for that reason, La Pier said his staff is ready for the busy holiday travel weekend.

"We're going to be all hands-on deck," said La Pier. "TSA is doing the same thing, this is supposedly the busiest travel day of the Christmas holiday today and we're flowing quite well."

Some people are choosing smaller airports like the one in Monterey instead of the larger and often busier airports in the bay area.

"That's why I'm flying out of Monterey," said Tabor. "There's no wait, there's no issues."

La Pier said although there has not been any flight cancellations, it's important for people who are flying out of Monterey Regional Airport to come to the airport ahead of time and to check their website just in case there's a flight cancellations.

The TSA shared guidance on holiday travel, including how to travel with gifts during the holidays.

You can see those guidelines by clicking here