Miami

Love Field Employees Prepared for Thanksgiving Travelers

Dallas Love Field was a blur of activity early Thanksgiving morning as thousands of people headed in to catch the first flights out.

"Miami. Party. Good weather," said Katie Barnes, of Flower Mound, excited about her turkey day getaway.

In advance of the busy travel season, airport staff were made aware of the amount of airline bookings so they could have an idea of how many people to have working on any given shift.

"The morning is typical of this, [but] this is a little more than we expected," Dallas Love Field spokesman Jose Torres said of the Thanksgiving morning rush.

The line for security was long, yet moving, which was attributed in large part to the extra Transportation Security Administration staff on board and two extra body scanners added recently.

"[The security line is] better than most days," said Lyndell Benoit, of Dallas, who told NBCDFW he, his wife Helen, and their kids Jonathan and Victoria, were flying out to a secret destination the children did not yet know about. "I work [at Love Field], so I see a lot of back up. But it's moving pretty smoothly, so hopefully we can get in and out."

Outside the terminal, the drop off lanes were a whir of activity. Several arriving passengers told NBCDFW they opted to be dropped off this year, after Love Field ran out of parking spots last Thanksgiving.

"I know last year with Thanksgiving, when we were flying out, I had trouble finding a parking spot," said Ross Harrison, of Plano, who was flying with his son Ethan to St. Louis Thursday. "So I made sure I had somebody drop me off today."

Parking problems appeared to be a thing of the past this year, however. As of 6 a.m., Garage A at the airport still had 1,643 open parking spaces, Garage B had 254 and there were approximately 400 spaces available at the recently-opened, off-site Love Connection parking lot, according to numbers provided by the airport.

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