Busiest travel day of Christmas season underway at SFO

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (KGO) -- Bay Area airports are crowded as holiday travelers are making their move for the long weekend.

SFO is the 7th busiest airport in the nation during the holidays and today it's not going to disappoint, with long lines in crowded terminals.

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Getting three kids out the door, before 6 a.m. can be quite a challenge, but the Wells family is going to Mexico for Christmas so they didn't want to risk missing their flight at SFO.

"They woke us up pretty early because they wanted to try and beat the lines," said Henry Wells, San Francisco resident.

"We're glad we did that because the lines are pretty big, the traffic is significant out front," said Alexandra Wells, San Francisco resident

The cars stacked up outside while the lines stretched down the terminals. SFO is forecasting 164,000 travelers going in and out of the airport today, making it one of the busiest days of the holiday season.

"We tried to get here really early, we thought it would be crowded and we were right. It was the most crowded I've ever seen it," said Natalie Brova, San Francisco resident.

Research from the travel app "Hopper" shows the busiest time of the day at SFO, based on the volume of scheduled departures is 7:50 a.m.

No matter where you fly, you're going to land into a busy airport. Hopper says almost 3.1 million passengers are scheduled to travel from the U.S., today, a record high.

Here's something new at SFO this holiday season, domestic garages are free for 30 minutes for quick drop offs and pick-ups, hoping to cut down on traffic at the curb.