DSM Airport announces new temporary entrance from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning

DES MOINES, Iowa- Construction on Fleur Drive will block the entrance and exit to the Des Moines International Airport starting Tuesday night.

The airport says they’re expecting to see heavy traffic in and out of the airport terminal as the main entrance will be blocked from Tuesday night at 7 p.m. to Wednesday morning at 4 a.m.

You can see here on this map above the new entry and exit point that travelers will need to go through during the road closure. All traffic will be rerouted to Leland Avenue.

The airport says they usually see several flights land between 10 p.m. to midnight on weeknights so heavier congestion is expected at that time as travelers head in and out of the airport.

This comes in the midst of the Labor Day travel period. Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, and the Transportation Security Administration is expecting the busiest Labor Day travel period on record this year.

The Labor Day travel period started on Thursday August 29 and will go through Wednesday September 4. TSA is predicting that over 17-million people are expected to fly during this time.

Breaking travel records is a common trend this year and the TSA says it’s because of increased demand, likely a result of heading back to normal from the pandemic.

“We are constantly working with our airlines and our airport partners because we have to staff the checkpoints for the number of people we’re expecting,” said Jessica Mayle, the regional spokesperson for the TSA. So, when there’s more demand, they add more flights, it gets busier. It’s just one of those things that stacks up. In general, that’s great news. We love to see travel recover, we love to see people in airports.”

However, despite this increase in travel across the country, the Des Moines International Airport says this weekend won’t be different from others, likely because there is less business travel and more leisure travel.

“We’re going to see about 3600 passengers over the holiday weekend come in and out of the airport, however, that’s about standard for what we see on the weekend,” said Sarah Hoodjer, the communications manager for the Des Moines International Airport.

The airport is encouraging travelers to be patient or, if possible, to change their flight plans.

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