South Florida travel surge: airports, highways, ports see holiday crowds

South Florida airports are bracing for a bustling holiday season. Miami International Airport is expecting about 190,000 passengers a day, while Fort Lauderdale Hollywood is looking at 124,000 a day. 

“I was expecting a lot of chaos, actually, but I just checked my bag. It was pretty much seamless,” said passenger Malcom Woods.

While things have been pretty smooth so far, travel expert Clint Henderson from The Points Guy is keeping his eyes open for an air traffic control shortage. 

“You’ll see this with reduced flow in some airports, especially in Florida and the Northeast, where they restrict the number of flights landing, that leads to delays and cancelations,” Henderson said.

In Florida, 7.5 million people will be sharing the highway. 

“We took a Disney Christmas cruise, the Very Merry  Christmas Cruise out of Fort Lauderdale, and then we’re going back to Orlando,” Sandra Draper said.  

She and her family said so far, the drive has been pretty good. 

“It’s been great. It’s been great. Traffic hasn’t been too bad, and the time together has been fun, and the memories made make it worthwhile,” she said.

Port Everglades is also seeing record traffic, expecting more than 4.7 million passengers this year.  Eight ships are in port on Monday, seven are expected next Saturday and Sunday. But that can lead to major back-ups getting in. 

Last Sunday, it took more than an hour for some,and people were seen walking in, dragging their luggage. Port officials say make sure to budget your time. 

“Check our website. We put out traffic alerts when we think the time is going to be busiest. We know that generally, times are between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. that we are heavy traffic times as people are arriving,” said Port Everglades Spokesperson Ellen Kennedy.