Thanksgiving travel rush continues Monday as millions head home, airlines report few issues
NEW YORK -- This Thanksgiving travel period could go down as the busiest on record.
According to TSA, more people were screened across the U.S. on Sunday than ever before on a single day.
The post-Thanksgiving rush continued Monday at Kennedy Airport, where many travelers were thankful to be returning home with ease.
"Not chaotic, it's very organized. Everyone is really, really sweet, courteous," one traveler told CBS New York.
AAA predicted Sunday and Monday would be two of the busiest airport days this holiday season as million travel home after celebrating Thanksgiving.
Cassie McNamara, of Flushing, Queens, was home for Thanksgiving and planned on traveling back to college in Tampa on Monday morning. Unfortunately, she didn't plan for traffic getting to the airport.
"I missed my flight, so bad experience," McNamara said. "Stuck in traffic coming in... My mom drove me. We weren't expecting it was going to be that long."
Excluding the traffic, travel experts said this turned out to be one of the smoothest post-holiday travel periods ever for airlines, which were up against a record number of travelers.
According to preliminary estimates, TSA agents screened 2.2 million passengers on Friday, 2.6 million on Saturday and 2.9 million on Sunday, a single-day record for the agency.
"It was smooth, just like everywhere was crowded, tons of people, not enough seats in the airport. Kind of comes with the territory. It's the sacrifice you make to travel during time of year," said Ram Sanchez, of Brooklyn.
TSA screened more than 27 million people from Nov. 16 to Nov. 26. and airlines are expecting elevated passenger volume Monday and possibly Tuesday.
The total number of travelers could surpass 30 million.
