Airports across Canada are bracing for the busiest travel weekend of the year.
More than 18,000 airline passengers are slated to visit the Ottawa International Airport December 22nd, double the airport's daily average.
"We are going to see busy traffic on Saturday as well, that's the second busiest travel day, it will slow down on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then it ramps right back up on Boxing Day and it is pretty steady right until the first of January," said Krista Kealey with the Ottawa Airport.
That's up from the roughly 17,000 people who travelled on December 23rd 2016, the busiest day the airport saw last year. It's an upward trend many airports across the United States and Canada have witnessed in 2017.
At Toronto's Pearson International Airport, more than 130,000 are expected to travel on December 21st, with an estimated 2.7 million jetting off between December 17th and January 7th.
To make the commute as smooth as possible, airline passengers are advised to arrive two to three hours early, to continually check their flight status online to watch for delays and cancellations, and to only carry unwrapped gifts in carry-on luggage.