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43.5 million people expected to travel this week

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Forty-three and a half million people are expected to travel this weekend for the holiday with the majority of the travelers on the roads, AAA says.

Administrators at Charlotte Douglas Airport said there will be bigger crowds in the terminal starting Monday. Airport officials said they will open terminals at 4:30 a.m. this week to help with the volume of travelers.

Airport officials expect around 25,000 people to come through on Wednesday, which is about 5,000 more than an average day.

There are some security changes that have been made since last holiday season that may help alleviate some of the congestion. A new terminal -- E -- adds five more screening checkpoints, bringing the total to 20 throughout the airport.

AAA expects about 3.1 million people to fly, but they said the majority of holiday travel will be on the roads. Thirty-nine million people are expected to hitting the roads, AAA estimates. That number is up slightly from last year.

But AAA said the average distance people will travel is down by a little more than 100 miles.

Hundreds of thousands of people are also expected to get where they need to be by train this week as well.