SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — People who are traveling over the July 4^th holiday and throughout the summer need to take their bag and their patience for sure. That’s according to travel expert Ken Jenkins.

Hundreds of flights are being canceled every day, mostly from staffing shortages.

“Demand is high and staffing is low,” says Jenkins. “And all those things go to create a perfect storm and that’s not even including if you have bad weather. Add bad weather to the mix and then it just gets “

Jenkins said for those who may not have booked their flights, it’s always best to leave early in the morning.

“If a flight is early in the morning usually the plane has come in the night before, so you know it’s already there in place and the crews have had time to be placed where they need to be,” Jenkins said.   

But for many summer travelers, the flight has been booked for months.

Jenkins says leaving from a smaller airport like Savannah can be helpful because of smaller crowds and it’s great when you have a nonstop flight. He says the problem comes when you go to the larger airports — which many locals do — and your connecting flight to your destination is canceled.

Jenkins says be prepared to scramble to find another flight. One way is to know something about the airline’s full schedule that day so you can ask to get on another flight that may be going where you need to go (or close.) 

He says when leaving a large airport, he studies the airport’s website to find out how many security checkpoints there are in the building. Jenkins said he may pick one that is farther from his gate but that is more out of the way so there are fewer people there being screened. That way, he actually gets into the airport faster.

Jenkins says it promises to be a challenging summer travel season so he says “take patience.” As always, the TSA advises passengers to arrive up to two hours early.