ORLANDO, Fla. — The “unofficial” start of the summer travel season has arrived, and the Orlando International Airport will be feeling the impacts as it expects a 2% passenger traffic increase from just last year.

Officials say that Friday and Sunday are predicted to be the busiest days with each day expecting to garner more than 173,000 guests.

What You Need To Know

  • Memorial Day Weekend is set to be the "unofficial" start of the summer travel season at the Orlando International Airport.

  • MCO says it expects close to a million travelers going in and out of their facilities during a six-day period.

  • Travelers say it's best to plan ahead and arrive to the airport early to avoid stress.

  • MCO officials suggest travelers download their MCO Orlando app to keep them up to date with wait times and delays.

Altogether, MCO is expecting almost a million people to travel in and out of the facility over a six-day period, which can come with some irritants.

“When you come down to Olando, a lot of times from St. Louis or really anywhere around the country, there’s usually some kids on the plane," said Anthony Denatale. "And there was a kid sitting right across from us that screamed for half the flight.”

And as much as people try to plan accordingly, problems may still arise, so it’s best to roll with the punches.

“If something happens, improvise. You need to improvise, improvise because it’s a part of the vacation," explained Haruka Arjona. "Sometimes you have the plan, but things happen, life happens, but if you have your secondary plans of A, B and C then you’re going to be great."

Arjona traveled from New York to meet her family for a Disney trip after their first attempt got rained out. But, now she’s back with a plan to go to all four parks in seven days.

“You need to organize. Organize is the base of everything," Arjona said. "If you want to make success in life, you have to organize.”

That’s exactly what Ahria Ilyas and Clifford Benton Jr. tried to do.

The couple is traveling back to Boston from a cruise to celebrate Clifford's law school graduation but ran into a snag with their flight.

"Our flight unfortunately got canceled, so we had to get another flight out of here last night," Ilyas shared. "But yeah, normally I try to do things in advance to beat the rush, but I completely forgot it was Memorial Day weekend so when we looked at the flights we were like, 'Well, this is an interesting price range.'"

The two said they planned seven to eight months in advance but couldn’t predict a cancellation. So, they suggest others take even more time to plan their trips.

“If you want to do holidays then do it months in advance. And do it with an airline that you trust," explained Benton Jr. "Do it with an airline that isn’t constantly canceling out your tickets.”

MCO officials suggest downloading the Orlando MCO App to check for wait times and parking availability.