CAE experiences pre-pandemic holiday crowds, few delays

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — According to AAA, around 50 million Americans are estimated to be traveling this 4th of July holiday.

More than 4 million of those travelers are projected to be flying to their destinations.

“We got hit with some pretty tough weather. It’s affected a lot of flights. My flight got canceled and the next one got delayed. A lot of Americans are going through the same things,” said Pete Buttigieg, US Department of Transportation secretary on Friday.

Even so, Columbia Metropolitan Airport staff reports a pretty steady flow of traffic through their gates. 

“We haven’t seen that many delays at CAE,” said Ryan Kreulen, CAE vice president of operations. “We hope that continues through the holiday so everybody can get home safely.”

AAA projects this summer might be the busiest in history for travel with many airports seeing pre-pandemic passenger numbers. 

“We’ve seen an increase in traffic recently, especially during the holiday weekend,” Kreulen said. “We’re definitely getting ourselves prepared for the extra passengers we’re going to see so we can get them where they are going quickly.”

CAE advises arriving two hours before your flight, especially for early morning flights which tend to be their busiest. You can also do things to make your trip smoother such as pre-book your parking and check your flight status. 

“We are a smaller airport so there’s not a lot of walking around that you have to do,” Kreulen. “We like to think we can make your trip much easier than through Charlotte, Atlanta or any other airport you might choose.”

Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg advises anyone whose flight is delayed or canceled to go to flight rights dot gov to see what they can expect from their airline. 

“We know that nobody can control the weather but anything under our control, we’ll be working on,” Buttigieg said. “Anything under the airlines’ control, they need to step up and take responsibility.”

Columbia Metropolitan Airport reports more than 12,000 passengers traveled CAE during the weekend and the airport anticipates another 5,000 passengers over the next couple days. 

Millions more Americans will also be traveling on the roadways. South Carolina troopers remind you to buckle up, watch your speed and choose a sober driver this holiday season.