BWI Airport To Be Busy With Uptick In Thanksgiving Travel: TSA

LINTHICUM, MD — A year after many local residents hunkered down at home for the holidays due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, TSA experts working out of Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport expect to see an uptick in travelers starting this weekend.

Thanksgiving has traditionally ushered in its biggest increase in traffic during the year and after a slowdown in 2020, TSA officials are expecting air travel to return to pre-pandemic levels this year.

The Thanksgiving holiday period runs from Friday to Sunday, Nov. 28 and TSA officials advise travelers to wear a mask, get to the airport two hours before their scheduled flight and be ready to go through the security screening process.

“Travelers should expect to see a very busy airport if they are traveling during the Thanksgiving timeframe,” Reginald Stephens, TSA’s acting federal security director for BWI said in a news release. “What passengers need to know is that we are ready and prepared for the expected increase in the number of individuals planning to fly out of BWI.”

In preparation for a bigger wait time through security lines, airport officials are encouraging travelers to know what items can and cannot be packed into a carry-on bag. The TSA offers a downloadable guide to what is permitted, and travelers can type the name of the item into the search engine to determine if they are allowed to bring that item aboard.

TSA officials recommend that travelers take time to visit the TSA web site, which has a lot of helpful information on preparing for a flight and letting individuals know what to expect.

Related: Best MD Thanksgiving Travel Times In 2021

Typically, the busiest travel days are the day before Thanksgiving and the Sunday afterward. The highest travel day in TSA’s history was the Sunday after Thanksgiving of 2019, when nearly 2.9 million individuals were screened at TSA security checkpoints nationwide.

Travel volume this year is not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels, but it is expected to be notably higher than what was seen in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

Passengers often travel with food items that they want to contribute to the Thanksgiving meal, and it’s important to know which foods should go into a carry-on or checked bag. As always, passengers can bring solid foods such as pies, cakes and other baked goods through the checkpoints. However, gravy, cranberry sauce, wine, jam, preserves, should all go into a checked bag because they are not solids. If you can spill it, spray it, spread it, pump it or pour it, then it's not a solid and should be packed in a checked bag.

Most foods can be carried through a TSA checkpoint, but there are some items that will need to be transported in checked baggage. If it's a solid item, then it can go through a checkpoint. However the items contains any liquid or can be turned into a liquid and it is larger than 3.4 ounces, then it should go in a checked bag, TSA officials said.

Unsure if an item should be packed in a carry-on bag, checked bag, either or neither? Download the free myTSA app, which has a handy “What can I bring?” feature that allows you to type in the item to find out if it can fly. Or ask us on Twitter or Facebook Messenger at @AskTSA.