PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – The holidays are a time of traveling for some with many people planning trips to see family and friends for Thanksgiving. Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport is preparing.

“We are anticipating one of the biggest travel holiday seasons coming up here and Thanksgiving, said Holly Melzer, chairman of the ECP airport authority.

They ask you to pack your patience during this time of travel and plan for parking.

“We do anticipate a lot of overflow parking and we will have extra shuttles available and helping hands available to hopefully help make that a seamless transition for passengers [to] get to [the] terminal on time,” said Melzer.

One of the busiest travel days of the year is coming up and ECP airport is no exception to the many passengers that will be traveling through and hitting the skies.

“We have been noticing a huge uptick in passengers this year over last year,” said Melzer. “There has been a nine percent growth over last year in the number of passengers coming through our airport, we have bigger planes which equal more passengers.”

That means more than a million passengers traveling through.

“We do have a number of construction projects happening at the airport including the completion of our long-term lot expansion project,” said Melzer.

They are encouraging passengers to arrive early, so they have time to find parking and get through security.

“We know they will be filling the overflow lot and we do have increased service to areas to hopefully alleviate some of those passenger moments that create stress for passengers,” said Melzer.

Preparing and planning to avoid the holiday stress. Travelers should make sure they have plenty of time to get where they are headed. Airport officials say to check the website and your airline to make sure you are receiving the latest information about your flight.

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