Few Delays as Millions Travel For Thanksgiving

Nearly 44 million Americans are hitting the road for the US Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with some in Northeast states hard hit by Superstorm Sandy moving their feast to warmer, drier quarters.

Airports across most of the country faced few delays on Wednesday, but not Chicago, where thick fog reduced visibility forcing hundreds of flight delays at the city's two airports and the cancellation of more than 130 flights in the morning.

At early afternoon Chicago time, passengers flying in and out of O'Hare Airport faced delays of about 40 minutes. Flights out of Midway had delays of about 45 minutes, according to FlightAware.

In Canada, flights in and out of Winnipeg Airport were subject to delays of about 25 minutes, FlightAware said.

The "very dense fog" was expected to gradually ease in Chicago, while rain, wind and mountain snow were expected to impede travel in the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

The weather service said the eastern third of the United States was expected to stay dry and pleasant for the holiday.

AAA expects 43.6 million people to travel 50 miles or more for the holiday, up about 0.7 percent from last year - and a fourth consecutive year of growth since the severe 2008 economic downturn cut travel on the holiday by 25 percent.

"We are on a slow climb back," AAA New York spokesman Robert Sinclair said on Wednesday. "It's a climb, but it is a slow one, and perhaps not enough for people to really make a significant commitment to travel."

SMALL DECLINE IN AIR TRAVEL

About 90 percent of travellers, 39.1 million, are expected to go by car, while air travel is expected to decrease by about 100,000 to 3.14 million, AAA said. About 1.3 million people are expected to travel by all other modes, including rail, bus and cruise ship, it said.

No cancellations or major delays were reported early Wednesday morning at Los Angeles Airport, the nation's second busiest behind O'Hare in passenger volume.

"Everything is going more or less normally," airport spokesman Marshall Lowe said, adding that motor traffic around the sprawling facility was flowing at posted speed limits, without serious jams.

However, travellers venturing to LAX by car between 11 am and 4 pm were advised to give themselves an extra 90 minutes due to heavy congestion as a result of a protest planned by hundreds of union airport workers along one of the main roads leading to the airport.

Nearly 1.8 million passengers were expected to pass through LAX in the holiday travel period between Wednesday and November 26, a slight increase over last year.

In Chicago, nearly 1.8 million passengers were expected to pass through O'Hare and Midway airports from Tuesday to Tuesday of next week, the city aviation department said.

(Reuters)