Travelers returning home after Thanksgiving find busy airports, but not long lines many feared

ATLANTA -- Travelers heading home after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend swarmed airports Sunday, but for the most part without the long lines and delays many had feared.

In Atlanta, home to one of the nation's busiest airports, rainy weather delayed some incoming flights more than two hours, though lines were moving, said Herschel Grangent, spokesman for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

"In terms of security checkpoints things are moving smoothly, but the issue now is due to low visibility," Grangent said.

Airport officials estimated about 1.8 million people would pass through Hartsfield during the long holiday weekend, including about 324,000 people on Sunday and 305,000 expected on Monday. That is about a 4.6 percent increase in holiday weekend traffic from last year, Grangent said.

AAA said its surveys indicated a record 38.7 million U.S. residents were likely to travel 50 miles or more for the holiday period of Wednesday through Sunday, up about 1.5 percent from last year. About 4.7 million were expected to fly, and about 31.2 million travelers were likely to drive in spite of rising gasoline prices, AAA said last week.

In the congested New York area, the Federal Aviation Administration said delays into and out of John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports were 15 minutes, while passengers had delays of about 40 minutes at LaGuardia.

Earlier in the day, traffic moved smoothly in Atlanta.

"So far, at least, it's been reasonable," Alli Charney of Atlanta said as she waited for a flight. "I just left very early, got a good night's rest and drank lots of coffee."

There were no delays by late morning at Los Angeles International Airport, spokeswoman Katherine Alvarado said. The airport had not taken any measures to reduce delays in anticipation of Sunday's heavy air traffic, she said.

Ashley Delseni arrived at Florida's Pensacola Regional Airport several hours early for a flight to Atlanta and a connection to San Diego, but she found no lines or delays by midmorning.

"Everything is going very smoothly," Delseni said. Her husband is a Marine stationed in Iraq, and she spent Thanksgiving with her family in Pensacola.

Virginia O. Van Antwerp and her daughter, Gypsie, returned home to Pensacola on Sunday following an overnight flight from Argentina, where they spent a Thanksgiving vacation, and a connecting flight from Atlanta.

"Everything was on time and there were no problems at all," Gypsie B. Van Antwerp said.

Delays were minimal for the estimated 311,000 travelers passing through Chicago's Midway Airport and O'Hare International Airport on Sunday and few flights were canceled, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride.

"Certainly, the weather has been kind to everyone -- travelers, airports and all transportation agencies and avenues alike," Pride said. "We're very happy that there have been a minimal number of delays for flights and not a lot of crowds at the airports."

O'Hare expected about 231,000 travelers to pass through its gates Sunday, and Midway anticipated 80,000. Nearly 3 million were expected over the entire Thanksgiving holiday period that began Nov. 16 and ends Monday.

On the ground, extra-long Amtrak trains ferried passengers across Illinois, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. "Today is a very busy day."

Not all travelers were pleased.

Ben Oni had to wait an extra 12 hours at Atlanta for his flight home to San Jose, Calif., while lugging a 32-inch flat screen television, because he missed the check-in deadline for his original flight by one minute.

"It's awful. I feel very unhappy, extremely unhappy and disappointed," the program manager said.