The Thanksgiving holiday travel rush — an 11-day stretch that’s considered one of the busiest times for air travel around the county — will begin on Friday, according to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
If you’re flying out of Reagan National Airport this weekend, however, plan on the trip taking a bit longer than usual. Scheduled track work on the Blue and Yellow Lines will close the Crystal City, Reagan National Airport and Braddock Road Metro stations from 10:00 Friday night through the end of Sunday.
To help accommodate DCA passengers during that time, Metro will run three different airport bus routes. One route includes stops at Pentagon City station, Crystal City station and the airport. Another runs between King Street and the airport. And the third runs from the airport the Metro Center station. There will also be a bus route between the Pentagon City, Crystal City, Braddock Road and King Street stations for local, non-airport riders.
Metro customers are asked to anticipate about 30 minutes of extra travel time.
“Historically, the weekend of November 18-20 is not an especially busy weekend for Metrorail ridership at Reagan National,” Metro said in a press release. “Metrorail service at the airport will operate normally with no scheduled track work throughout the busy Thanksgiving week, beginning Monday, November 21, and continuing through Sunday, November 27.”
Once you get to the airport, MWAA has a comprehensive list of travel tips to help get you through the crowds and security checkpoints smoothly.
Flickr pool photo by BrianMKA