McGhee Tyson will close main Alcoa Highway entrance on spring break weekends: What to know
The airport's main entrance from Alcoa Highway will be inaccessible to southbound travelers (those coming from Knoxville) from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. on these dates:
Thursday, March 6 to Monday, March 10
Thursday, March 13 to Monday, March 17
Thursday, March 20 to Monday, March 24
The Hunt Road exit is the next exit south from the airport's main entrance, and it passes by economy parking lots and the Hilton hotel before reaching the terminal building.
The traffic pattern will not change for passengers heading north on Alcoa Highway.
After taking the exit, passengers will turn right onto Tyson Boulevard, which turns onto Terminal Loop Drive by the hotel. The airport will monitor traffic on these roads, which staff says is a safer option with the volume of travelers expected those weekends.
"We don't want to create a safety hazard by having the backup on Alcoa Highway," airport spokesperson Becky Huckaby told Knox News.
McGhee Tyson will consider repeating the closures at peak travel times if the change works well, Huckaby said. The airport has encouraged travelers and anyone giving a ride to use the Hunt Road exit, which leads directly to the "phone and wait" lot, even during normal operations.
"Because our curb is not for parking, it's for continuous loading and unloading only and moving on, the more we can keep that movement going through that area, the quicker everybody can get pick up their person," Huckaby said.
Knox County Schools are on spring break March 17-21, meaning students are off March 15-23, including weekends. Blount County Schools are on spring break March 10-14. Alcoa City Schools and Oak Ridge City Schools get two weeks of spring break March 10-21.
See the dates: When is spring break? Here are Knoxville area schools and University of Tennessee dates
The airport will open a new entrance to its parking garage alongside the old entrance, which closes the week of March 10 for construction on a new parking garage. Drivers will not need to change their route to the parking garage, since the new entrance is only slightly different, Huckaby said.
As the airport serves record numbers of passengers – 3.3 million in 2024 – it is building a six-story, 3,500-space parking garage set to open next to its existing parking garage in 2027. The $185 million construction project is the most expensive in airport history.
The garage is part of McGhee Tyson's "Flight Plan" for $700 million of construction over the next decade to expand its terminal and the number of gates. Upgrades range from large to small, like replacing the terminal's outmoded escalators.
McGhee Tyson issued its standard holiday travel tips for passengers during spring break, which include:
Arriving at the airport two hours early, even for 5 a.m. flights
Building in enough time to park and get to the terminal
Checking flyknoxville.com for real-time parking availability
Downloading airline app to get latest flight updates
Packing light and in the right size of luggage
Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Email: daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com. Signal: @danieldassow.24.
Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: McGhee Tyson Airport closes main entrance for spring break travel in TN
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