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Travelers head out for Thanksgiving

November 21st, 2012

It’s a busy day for travel at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as travelers fly out and arrive for the Thanksgiving holiday. Even though thousands were traveling at Hartsfield-Jackson Wednesday morning, they were greeted by short security lines. Around 7 a.m. the lines were 20 minutes or less, and for most of the morning they averaged under 10 minutes. That pleased passengers like 29 year old Jessica Robinson who was on her way to Louisiana.

“To know that I can get through here in less than hour is a wonderful surprise.”

40-year-old Decatur resident Mark Linenberg was also surprised to see things running smoothly.

“It’s probably a lot worse than what we’ve looked at in the past. Parking wasn’t that bad, traffic wasn’t that bad and check in wasn’t that bad.”

In fact, Mark’s wife Connie says the hardest part was packing and getting her two young sons into the airport as they traveled to New Jersey.

“It was hectic. It was a lot work just to get the boys up, ready, dressed, get our bags in the car and make sure we got everything. And then my husband had to drop me off first, and it was quite a scene because I was carrying the car seat, the stroller and the two boys.”

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Jon Allen says more than a thousand T-S-A employees were working.

“When you work for TSA you understand that the holidays are a demand period, so there’s a very limited use of leave time, we have the ability to leverage overtime. We’ve had all checkpoint lanes since a little after six this morning.”

Airport officials say travelers spreading out their trips, a new security checkpoint at the new international terminal and a slight decrease in travel has also led to shorter lines. But officials say passengers still need to arrive an hour and half to two hours early because the because it could get busier tonight.