Colorado Springs Airport expecting large Memorial Day weekend travel numbers

Increased travel through the Colorado Springs Airport is expected during the Memorial Day holiday weekend after a strong April.

More than 20,000 passengers are expected to board planes between Thursday and Tuesday, and a total of 40,000 passengers to travel through the airport. That’s a 10% increase over the same travel period in 2023, according to Colorado Springs Airport spokeswoman Dana Schield.

“Peak travel days are expected to be Thursday, Friday and Monday,” Schield said. “We encourage travelers to arrive at least 90 minutes to two hours before their flight is scheduled to depart.”

If parking lots are at capacity during peak travel times, passengers are encouraged to use overflow parking, Schield said.

As Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, more than 40 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday, according to AAA. If those numbers bear out, it will be the busiest Memorial Day weekend in nearly 20 years.

That will likely mean jam-packed airports in Denver and Colorado Springs. Officials at Denver International Airport expect nearly 450,000 travelers to go through security this weekend. 

The Transportation Security Administration says up to 3 million might pass through airport checkpoints on Friday alone.

And that is just a sample of what is to come. U.S. airlines expect to carry a record number of passengers this summer. Their trade group estimates that 271 million travelers will fly between June 1 and Aug. 31, breaking the record of 255 million set – you guessed it – last summer.

There’s certainly no slowdown at airports. The number of people going through security checkpoints is up 3.2% this year. The TSA said it screened 2.85 million people last Friday and nearly as many on Sunday — the two busiest days of the year so far.

The expected busy weekend ahead at the Colorado Springs Airport comes after it saw a total of 194,004 passengers travel through the terminal in April, representing a 15.4% increase from the same month last year. Enplanements were up by 15.6% year-over-year, with 97,293 travelers boarding a plane.

“We have consistently seen an increase in traffic at COS, and as we approach the summer months, we anticipate that this trend will continue,” said Greg Phillips, director of aviation at the airport.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.