Travel tips to follow at John Wayne Airport

Travelers flying out of John Wayne Airport for Christmas and New Year’s Eve are being advised to pack all snow globes and not wrap any presents if they plan to take bags containing them into the plane’s cabin, according to JWA Spokeswoman Jenny Wedge.

“All carry-on luggage is subject to a search, so you don’t want to wrap something that could potentially be unwrapped,” she said.

Although Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest time of the year for the airport — with Christmas and New Year’s Eve following closely behind — passengers should try to get to the airport at least 90 minutes before their scheduled flights, Wedge said.

There’s also a 3.4-ounce restriction on liquids that can be carried into airplane cabins, which is why the liquidy snow globes are not allowed. They generally exceed that weight limit, Wedge said.

Passengers should bear in mind, too, that construction of Terminal C is under way, so they should allow extra time for parking, Wedge said.

About a half-million people use the airport between mid-November and the end of the year, Wedge said.

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 27,236 passengers used JWA, according to statistics provided by the airport. And on Sunday after Thanksgiving, there were more than 28,000 passengers, Wedge said. Between Nov. 24 and Nov. 28 alone, nearly 109,000 passengers used the airport.

Tom Ragan