BROWNSVILLE – With the holiday travelers gearing up for Thanksgiving, a Rio Grande Valley airport is preparing for the crowds even while undergoing construction.

According to AAA, more than 55 million people will be traveling for the holidays. Some of those travels will go through the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport.

Airport officials recommend people traveling through their terminal should show up extra early and should expect to walk some.

“That's one of pains of construction there's no progress without a little bit of pain, so we lost the short term parking lots and the long term immediate parking,” said Francisco Partida, the special projects manager at the airport.

The construction will expand the airport from two to four gates, making busy travel weeks easier.

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