Busy travel day at ILM airport, seeing record number of travelers

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — If you’re flying out of the Wilmington International Airport for the holidays, get there early.

Friday is one of the busiest days to travel during the month of December.

There’s been waves of people throughout the day as many people heading home and many people coming home for the holidays.

While ILM is a small airport, it’s continuing to grow. Airport Director Julie Wilsey says Friday has surpassed last year’s record of travelers. The number of people traveling to and from the airport is up by 6 percent.

Wilsey wants to remind travelers to get to the airport earlier to make sure they have enough time to check their bags and get through security.

She also says not to wrap gifts until you reach your destination as the TSA may have you unwrap your items. Despite the nasty weather, Wilsey said everything is on track.

“Everything’s on time so we should have a regular day,” Wilsey said. “It’s about 1,250 people leaving Wilmington, the same amount coming in. Again we’ll just be really busy.”

Having everything on schedule made Karen Parker’s day as she picked up her son Landon from the  airport.

“The weather was kind of iffy and he made it here safe and we’re gonna have a great time,” Parker said.

Landon serves in the Air Force and had not been home in four months.

“I’m really excited for food. Excited to see my friends after a while and my family and everybody,” Landon said.

While Landon was coming home for the holidays, Marine Jacob McNett was heading home to Texas. McNett said he has never flown out of ILM and that it is a nice change from the hustle and bustle of bigger airports.

“I’ve only ever been in bigger ones. I was in one in Georgia, which is where I will be flying to first, there’s a train in there to take people where they want to go. I think it’s too big, I don’t like it but there’s like no one in here so it’s pretty nice,” McNett said.

Aside from the growth in numbers of travelers, ILM is growing in flights. Saturday is the first American flight to Dallas Fort-Worth and Wilsey is very excited about the new option for travelers.

The Dallas flight will run from Friday until January 7 except for Christmas Eve.