US travelers returning home after Thanksgiving find busy airports, but not long lines

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

In Atlanta, home to one of the busiest U.S. 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.

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.

The AAA car association said its surveys indicated a record 38.7 million U.S. residents were likely to travel 50 miles (80 kilometers) 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.

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. ___

Associated Press writers Melissa Nelson in Pensacola, Florida, and Ashley M. Heher in Chicago contributed to this report.