Atlanta airport prepares for late-July holiday rush

ATLANTA – As the busy Fourth of July weekend draws to a close, the world’s busiest airport expects hundreds of thousands of people to transit through Atlanta on Sunday and Monday.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport expects 364,000 people to travel through on Sunday and Monday, including nearly 4 million for the entire July 4 travel period, which began June 27. The airport said the large number of people is because July 4 fell on a Thursday this year and many people took long weekends around the holiday.

On Saturday, eight international flights were diverted to other cities during a stopover at the airport due to weather conditions, causing a traffic jam at customs while all of these flights were able to land.

But travelers FOX 5 spoke with Sunday said that despite the crowds, their travel experience went well.

)”I don’t go through Atlanta very often, but we travel three or four times a year, and it was really busy today,” said Vicki Calhoun, who was returning to Atlanta from St. Louis. “It was great. I was pretty surprised. I made sure to get to the airport really early, I went through TSA pre-screening, but it was so fast.”

The airport encourages travelers to arrive at the airport two and a half hours early for domestic flights and three hours early for international flights.

Information on security wait times can be found here and parking availability here.