Friday is expected to be the busiest holiday travel day at SEA Airport

SEATTLE – Friday is expected to be the busiest travel day of the winter holiday season at SEA Airport. Between Thursday and Sunday, authorities expect hundreds of thousands of people to use the airport.

An airport spokesman said 172,000 people are expected to travel through the airport on Friday and the second busiest day is expected to be Thursday, December 19, with about 164,000 people expected.

Leisure travelers KING 5 spoke with said their best advice is to arrive early.

“I feel like everyone waits until the last minute and then gets super stressed when they get here,” Katie Hanrahan said.

“I always try to get there really early just because I’d rather be on the other side and work and, you know, catch up on things without stress,” said traveler Christian Murdock.

Passengers Thursday afternoon told KING 5 that they didn’t think there was too much going on inside the airport and that the busiest area was actually the road leading into the airport.

“Going into the terminal, it was a little crowded or overcrowded,” Murdock said.

Despite the “No Parking” signs marking the road to the terminal, people still stand idle on the side of the road waiting to pick up passengers.

“I mean, it’s every day, like always,” Hanrahan said. “I fly a lot for work, and that has always been true for so long.”

The airport said the signs are there for a reason and they want people to follow the rules.

“We’re really trying to make people realize that it’s just not safe to be there,” said Perry Cooper, a spokesman for SEA Airport.

Cooper said people can wait in the cell phone lot until their loved ones arrive. He said there are cones on the side of the road on the airport property, adding that the area where KING 5 saw cars idling on the side of the road on Thursday is state property.

“So we set up barriers in our area where we can do that and we tried to work with the state police. They have their own rules about what’s allowed on state highways, and that’s what we hope for.” “There are some additional solutions there,” Cooper said.

He said both the airport and the state are working on enforcement and are looking into increasing fines beyond the current $55. Enforcement needs to consider staffing levels, he said.

“You have to decide: Do you want more officers in the terminal, doing things inside the terminal while activities are going on there, or do you want them out on the streets? We’re looking at other options that might exist as to how we can do this in the future,” Cooper said.

Although Friday is expected to be the busiest day of the holiday travel season, the airport’s busiest time of year is actually the summer months. On an average travel day in August, there are more travelers at the airport than on a busy holiday weekend.