Fourth of July travel at Broward, Miami-Dade airports test drive for summer surge

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – If you’ve traveled anywhere over the past few days or the last couple of weeks, booking a flight is like rolling the dice, but despite all of that people are still willing to take the gamble.

More than 4,000 delays this past weekend and more than 300 cancellations across the country.

According to the Transportation Security Administration, more than 6.7 million people have been screened since Friday.

Locally, nearly 74,000 passed through Miami International Airport on Sunday.

Airport officials said that’s up from 15 percent from the same time last year.

The summer surge is coming as airlines are dealing with pandemic-related staffing shortages, picketing pilots and weather delays and all this as airlines are cutting down their schedules to try to improve reliability.

At Fort Lauderdale Airport, most everything was running on schedule on the Fourth of July and only a handful at MIA.

Alex Dennisov was traveling back to San Francisco with his family after they had enjoyed a Disney Cruise.

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“So far, so good. Cross the fingers,” he said.

At the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, officials expect more than 500,000 people to fly in and out between Friday and Wednesday, which is expected to be the busiest day. That is a lower estimate than last year because of more limited schedules and seats, but it is still busy, though.

At MIA, the percentage of flights taking off and landing on time is around 85 percent.

Heading out?

Check out real-time flight status at Miami International Airport

Check out real-time flight status at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport