Thursday is the beginning of a very busy time of the year at Houston airports: It's Spring Break.
As many as 207,000 travelers are expected to show up at terminals Thursday alone.
Friday March 7th could see a quarter of a million people running for planes or waiting on luggage throughout the day.
Houston Airport System Director of Aviation Jim Szczesniak says the crowds continue through next Monday, when another quarter-million travelers are expected to return home when Spring Break winds down.
But he says there's plenty of good news about traveling this year: Construction has been removed from some of the terminal access roads so getting around is easier, there's a new TSA check-in area that's hoped to make the experience more convenient, and there are new concessions and restaurants with names like The Rustic to make the airport experience more interesting.
But for those who fly frequently, the Spring Break season signals the soon-coming time of year when things get busy again, and unlike Christmas, Thanksgiving and Spring Break, the next time Houston airports get really busy again, they'll stay busy for months.
"It's called Summer," Szczesniak says. "It's consistently busy. But you know these little periods we get for the holidays, well, summer is like that every day."