CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Douglas International Airport is once again heading into the busy holiday season.

Airport data suggests the number of passengers at the airport is set to be roughly 71,000 on peak days now through Jan. 2.

The slowest days expected over the next few weeks are Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, according to the same data.

Normally, Charlotte Douglas says it sees roughly 66,000 daily passengers.

As the holiday season ramps up, Charlotte travelers will navigate a busy airport and active construction zone, as work continues on the roughly $600,000,000 new terminal lobby.  

The project, set to finish in 2025, has caused delays, traffic pattern changes and other headaches in recent months.

“Constant traffic, constantly being backed up, it was a madhouse,” said Derrell Walker, a limo driver who makes frequent trips to Charlotte Douglas.

The new terminal lobby expansion and renovation is part of a years-long, three billion dollar investment in the airport. Other projects are already complete, while others are still in planning stages.

“Most customers wonder when it’s going to be over,” Walker said with a smile.

Walker drives for Plush Limo here in Charlotte, making daily trips out to the airport. 

“Daily basis, daily basis, several times a day,” Walker said.

Walker, who’s lived in Charlotte for several years and has been a professional driver for about a year now, said the job is enjoyable.

“I really like the people, it’s great people here. Charlotte is a beautiful place,” Walker said.

But recently, his trips to and from Charlotte Douglas have not been a vacation, as recent construction changes to traffic patterns have caused various headaches and delays.

“Typically, we have a seven-minute turn around, that it takes to normally get clients into the airport and get them unloaded, and then for me to get back out of the airport,” Walker said.

But, this past fall when Charlotte Douglas had to temporarily close the upper level drop-off area to install a new canopy, Walker said the traffic delays were intense. 

“We were experiencing up to an hour, hour-and-a-half wait times,” Walker recalled.

The upper level drop-off area has since reopened, but there are still impacts on passenger areas in and around the drop-off zones and inside the terminal lobby.

“For passengers who have not been to the Airport lately, approximately 90,000 square feet of the Terminal Lobby Expansion’s west side debuted in July. When entering the terminal’s upper or lower levels on the west side, ticket counters, security checkpoints and luggage carousels are not immediately visible. Signage has been installed to point customers in the right direction,” Charlotte Douglas said in a recent holiday travel news release.  

Drivers like Walker say they’re used to getting questions about it from customers.

“They just say that they can’t wait for it to be over, they just say they can’t wait for it to be over, so things can go back to normal,” he added.

Construction continues as holiday travel appears to be rebounding post-COVID-19 pandemic. This year, Walker said he is already busy through Jan. 31, with dozens of trips to the airport already booked.

“It definitely has picked back up. More people are definitely traveling than they were last year,” Walker said.