Families fight traffic to reunite at RDU for Thanksgiving

It was a festive mood at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Wednesday.

There were of course some family reunions.

Like the Quiroga family. Their son and daughter-in-law live in Mexico, and during the pandemic, they had a baby girl.

Wednesday was the first time Chelo and Rogelio Quiroga met their granddaughter.

"There are no words to describe how excited I am right now,” said Chelo Quiroga. “We were counting months, weeks, then days and hours.”

The seconds evaporated Wednesday night as the family reunited.

Outside the airport traffic was bumper to bumper.

But it got better for Debra Harris when she got to embrace her son, who is a construction management major at Louisiana State University.

“It was horrible. We rolled around five or six times,” said Harris. "I’m excited to have him back to hug him and love him. To have him home for the holidays.”

It’s been five months since he’s seen his mom and he tells WRAL News it feels great to be back in North Carolina.

RDU expects 234,000 passengers to pass through this week. Sunday is the busiest travel day of the year.