Austin airport braces for busy October

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Tons of travelers pouring in and out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport — that’s what airport officials expect in October, with many major events taking place in Austin.

We’re only a week away from back-to-back weekends of the Austin City Limits Music Festival followed by the Formula 1 race at the Circuit of the Americas.

Three-day passes for both weekends of ACL have already sold out. After selling out its seats, COTA added an infield grandstand to pack in even more people.

This brings about the possibility of a record-breaking number of passengers traveling through the airport in October.

To ensure they have the staffing needed to keep pace with potential sky-high demand, AUS officials are putting plenty of preparations in place. The airport recently requested the Transportation Security Administration to bring in additional support for those upcoming weekends.

AUS is also shifting around staff schedules, training them to take on temporary roles as they brace for busier days ahead.

According to AUS senior public information officer Sam Haynes, they’re also training their staff to take on temporary roles to brace for busy days ahead.

“Calling in airport staff that don't usually work in the terminal to volunteer their time to come out and take on a more passenger-facing role,” she said. “What that looks like is asking folks from finance, human resources, planning and development to come out to support our guest's services along with our terminal operations teams.”

Last year, the Monday after Formula 1 was the busiest day ever at AUS, with TSA screening over 35,000 departing passengers.

This year, AUS is expecting to exceed that on Monday, Oct. 24.