MIDLAND, Texas — Although it might not be much, seeing as Midland International Airport has had consistently low passenger rates because of the pandemic, the airport is expecting to gobble up more foot traffic this week thanks to thanksgiving.
"I think we'll have more travelers than we do on a normal week right now because of the current situation," Justine Ruff, director of airports, city of Midland said.
"It seems like there's a lot of people that are more family-oriented than business-oriented this week," Ruff said.
Last weekend TSA hit the mark for more than 1 million passengers nationwide. That's the first time that's happened since March.
But the CDC says the safest way to celebrate this year is at home with the people you live with.
"Some people will heed the CDC warnings and some people will go anyway," Ruff said.
So for those people that go anyway, the airport is sticking to the cleaning practices they've learned so well this year.
"We have stickers over all of our elevator buttons and our high touch areas that are disinfectant, good for about 90 days. So we swap those out but all our high touch areas have those and you can see those. We also have an electrostatic sprayer and every Wednesday night the whole terminal is sprayed," Ruff said.
They're also continuing to wipe down highly touched surfaces and areas 24/7.
"The TSA has their own protocol that they're using plus our stuff on top of it," Ruff said.
The goal: To keep every holiday traveler safe and healthy.
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Reminders:
- If you're traveling with gifts, don't wrap them because there's a chance they might need to be unwrapped going through TSA.
- If it's a gift that shouldn't go through TSA, be sure to check it in your luggage.
- Allow for extra time.