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Travelers Encounter Delays At Tri-State Airports

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Nov 21, 2007 8:13 pm US/Eastern

Travelers Encounter Delays At Tri-State Airports

Delays? CBS 2's Planes, Trains & Automobiles Guide

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Accustomed to hours-long delays in her holiday travels, Dionne Fawcett waited apprehensively at LaGuardia Airport for a flight Wednesday to Dallas to be with family and friends on Thanksgiving.

But, as it turned out, the afternoon flight she and her cocker spaniel, Ruby, were taking was on time.

She was one of the lucky ones. By midday, delays of up to two hours were reported at New York's three, congestion-plagued major airports.

Flights into LaGuardia were averaging an hour behind schedule while departure delays at John F. Kennedy International Airport were about a half hour behind.

By midafternoon, arrival delays at Newark Liberty International Airport had climbed to nearly two hours, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. They remained at one hour and 46 minutes by late in the day.

Surveys indicated a record 38.7 million U.S. residents were likely to travel 50 miles or more for the holiday between Wednesday and Sunday, up about 1.5 percent over last year, according to the AAA auto club.

Amtrak said several trains were sold out Wednesday. Amtrak expected more than 115,000 riders for the day, about a 70 percent increase over a usual Wednesday, spokesman Cliff Cole said.

Travelers trickled into New York's Pennsylvania Station before dawn, including Carrie Seligson, a 38-year-old construction worker, who got to the station an hour before her departure on one of the earliest trains to Washington, where she was going to spend the holiday with her family and attend her 20th high school reunion.

"There are too many people later in the day, and the train gets too crowded," Seligson said.

Marleise Brosnan, 52, of Ridgefield, Conn., was among those waiting at LaGuardia. She was headed to Raleigh, N.C. to visit relatives.

"It's been very smooth," said Brosnan, who added that she didn't run into traffic delays during her 90 minute drive to the airport. "I wasn't anticipating a delay and I haven't run into one."

At the Port Authority Bus Terminal, lines were short Wednesday morning at the gates for Greyhound, Trailways and Peter Pan.

Sonja Cavanzo, 23, a college student from the Bronx, was loaded down with four bags as she waited to buy her ticket to Columbus, Ohio, to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend's family. She was bringing "a teddy bear for his mother, and a Christmas ornament and little Christmas tree for him."

Jason Butler, 37, made a last-minute decision to visit his girlfriend in Paul Smiths, north of Lake Placid.

Butler said he chose the bus because "it would have cost me double to drive," and planes and trains were sold out.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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