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Holiday Travelers Pleasantly Surprised By Easy Time At Airports

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- With the long Thanksgiving holiday coming to an end, millions of travelers were headed home Sunday evening.

As CBS 2's Drew Levinson reported, while many people think the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the biggest travel day of the year, it is actually the Sunday after. This year, AAA said more than 43 million people would travel at least 50 miles from home.

Most would drive but still millions would fly, and the while delays were expected at the airports, the situation wasn't too bad.

For most, it is the worst part of the Thanksgiving Holiday -- the dreaded flight home on what is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year.

"We knew in advance," said holiday traveler Michael Schmidt. "We knew when we came here on Thursday it was going to be busy, so we just hoped for the best."

Schmidt and his wife arrived early at LaGuardia Airport with their two little girls in tow. They knew might need to keep the girls entertained for hours.

"We just left the Disney Store, and we left a lot of money there, so we are prepared," he said.

Virginia Pena brought her three sons to New York for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. They left New York with a bag full of chips and chocolates, braced for a rough ride home to Miami.

"On our way here, we had a three-hour delay, so I made sure we are ready this time around," Pena said.

Even though the Sunday after Thanksgiving is considered the busiest holiday travel day of the year, the monitors at LaGuardia showed few delays. And while LaGuardia was the fourth busiest airport this holiday, a glance around showed that it really wasn't that busy.

Karen Sonn and her family just arrived home from a trip to grandma's house in Canada. They took an early flight, fearful of what was ahead.

"It was wonderful. We lucked out," Sonn said. "We expected it to be awful, because I like, you know, it is supposed to be the worst travel day of the year."

So for most travelers, the holiday headaches were replaced by a day of happy landings.

Holiday travelers -- what was your experience like? Leave your comments below...

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