WINDSOW LOCKS, CT (WGGB/WSHM) - Our holiday travel coverage continues tonight, with a look at what conditions are like for anyone catching a flight between now and the new year. Western Mass News stopped by Bradley International Airport on Friday.

The end-of-year holiday travel period officially gets underway on Saturday, and even though travelers we talked to say they were prepared for the worst, getting through the airport didn’t cause them any headaches.

Saturday through the first day of the new year — AAA projects more than 8 million people will be flying domestically over the 13-day period.

About 92,000 travelers will take off from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, between Thursday, the 18th and next Friday, the 26th.

Western Mass News spoke with air travelers Friday, who told us flying this holiday season has been much easier compared to previous years, despite AAA’s forecast of this one being the busiest.

“it’s usually chaotic, it’s usually a mess, there’s usually a lot of delays so it was really nice this year,” said Jessica Clark, who was travelling from Florida.

Even though travelers say they were prepared for stressful conditions Friday, the ones we heard from didn’t run into any problems.

“I got to the airport and was at my gate 20 minutes later,” said Nathan Russell, who was travelling from Arkansas.

“There was a lot of people waiting but lines themselves and security, and checking bags in wasn’t too crazy at all,” said Alexis Golden who landed at Bradley from Denver.

Bradley told us their peak travel hours are typically 4:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. That’s when upwards of 25 flights depart in the span of just a few hours. They say the 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. timeframe is also pretty busy.

So, for those of you taking to the skies in the coming days, traveler, Alexis Golden, shared this advice, “get there early, try to book parking ahead of time, give yourself some extra time in general especially with delays just be prepared to potentially wait around longer.”

Bradley also told Western Mass News that parking at the airport will be in high demand now until December 26th, so all passengers are advised to familiarize themselves with all the parking options in the event that their preferred location isn’t available.

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