Travelers Brave Crowded Airports, Roads Following Thanksgiving Weekend Trips
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Sunday is one of the busiest travel days of the year as many return home from visiting friends and relatives over the long Thanksgiving weekend.
As 1010 WINS' Roger Stern reported, it all went smoothly for some air travelers -- a nice change of pace after a winter storm caused headaches for many trying to leave the Tri-State area ahead of Thanksgiving on Wednesday.
Smooth Flying For Many Returning Home From Thanksgiving Weekend Trips
At LaGuardia Airport, Brook, of Manhattan, said she had to change her reservation to avoid the snow, but all she had to do to get home was get on the plane.
"This one was easy coming back from Detroit. It's an hour flight, it was very easy," she said.
"It's actually been less than expected," said Scott. "I thought it was going to be quite a bit worse. This Sunday has been far less busy than I had expected."
For some, including Joe Russo from West Hempstead, the challenge on Sunday was on the roads.
"The air, fine, no problem at all; perfect," he said. "Once you get to this taxi line, you want to jump back into the plane."
But for others, especially those flying into Newark Liberty International Airport Sunday night, traveling didn't go so smoothly, CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported.
Late Sunday night, there were nearly 100 delays at Newark airport.
At Midway Airport in Chicago, the security screening line measured 1.2 miles long. Some waited for two hours to be screened, and many missed their flights, Sanchez reported.
Crippling fog in Denver caused huge delays. Flights for passengers at Denver International Airport were delayed for as long as five hours.
"It's always kind of hard when you're kind of anxious to get out on a busy travel day and then come to find out you'll be waiting around hours longer," said Nicole Baumgart.
Ken Lerrick said he didn't have trouble flying out of O'Hare in Chicago, but his flight to Westchester County Airport ended up delayed by an hour.
"There was a lot of traffic into New York City. The plane taxied out to the tarmac got ready to take off and then was told 'No access into New York, turn around, go back to the gate,'" he said.
Millions of people are on the move, and AAA said about 90 percent are on the roads.
Mateus Falci said he's surprised he hasn't run into any major delays.
"I was worried that 287 was going to be backed up, but it's been like fairly normal and calm," he said.
Drivers on the Cross Bronx Expressway didn't fair as well and found themselves stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.
Paul Rosengard said even some train travelers suffered glitches. He road the Acela from Boston to Manhattan.
"There was some mechanical problem with the train so we got stuck," he said.
Wednesday's storm forced the cancellation of nearly 300 flights at New York City's area airports. The tracking service FlightAware.com also reported thousands of flight delays well into the night.
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