COLUMBUS, Ohio — The busiest day to fly out of John Glenn Columbus International Airport will be on Wednesday with 14,900 passengers departing, according to the airport.
The airport expects 155,000 travelers between Nov. 22-29, which they said is a 45% increase from last Thanksgiving.
All those passengers will test the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents who were required on Monday to get vaccinated.
There is a nationwide concern that there may not be enough agents to handle the surge of travelers, but TSA said it’s not concerned.
“We absolutely have enough people. This is one we've been preparing for quite a while," said Scott Lorenzo, Acting Federal Security Director for the TSA.
The concern about a lack of TSA agents comes from the union that represents them. It sent a letter on Nov. 17 to President Joe Biden asking “..to delay the deadline for federal employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 from Nov. 22 to Jan. 18, to ensure federal employees and federal contractors are subject to the same deadlines."
In October, TSA reported 60% of its workers were vaccinated.
“We can't give out our vaccination rates but we are very confident where we are right now. We will be able to handle the Thanksgiving travel and our folks are ready,” said Lorenzo.
TSA said travelers can expect on average a 15-minute wait to get through security at John Glenn Columbus International Airport, but warn that could be as high as 25 minutes during a surge.
TSA also reports a record number of guns found in travelers' luggage at the airport. Last year they found 20 guns. So far this year, they’ve found 28 guns. The organization said 80% of the guns were loaded.
The airport is urging people to give themselves at least two hours after you park to catch your flight.
For more travel tips go to the airport's website.