HEBRON, Ky. — The Kentucky Derby is fastly approaching and officials at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport are ready for passengers from out of state to come flying in to the commonwealth to be a part of the celebrations.

“We’re expecting some strong numbers of 85 to 95% of what we saw in 2019. The morning push, that Sunday morning, will be our most busiest. We’re going to manage wait times to under 30 minutes as best as possible,” said Thomas Bechtol, Kentucky TSA acting federal security director.

CVG officials announced Wednesday that they’re switching to a new technology system, computed tomography (CT) screening, which they expect to be fully operational for Derby weekend. This will allow TSA security to get a better literal picture on what’s in a person’s bag.

“These new machines are like a globe. We have the ability to manipulate the image of a bag to look for potential threats inside of them,” said Mark Howell, TSA regional spokesperson.

It provides more security. Howell said it also provides a perk to the passenger, so they won’t have to remove items like technology from the bag. That could mean less stress on passengers, and smoother transitions through TSA, especially as summer travel picks up.

“In our community we see numbers rise just before Memorial Day in the middle of May towards the end of May, those numbers are expected to pick up,” Bechtol said. “But at CVG those peak numbers are expected to be the peak of June.”

Bechtol stressed that while they’re looking to continue to make things easy on passengers, those traveling should still arrive two hours prior to their flight.