It is expected to be one of the busiest Thanksgiving travel periods ever as the Transportation Security Administration predicts it will screen roughly 3 million airline passengers nationwide today.
Overall, TSA is projected to screen 18.3 million people between Tuesday, Nov. 26 to Monday, Dec. 2, a 6% increase from this same time last year.
It was a rough start to the day at LaGuardia Airport which saw lines of people wrapping around Terminal A as some said they waited for more than an hour to clear security.
"We got here at about 3:15 and this sucks, this sucks," one traveler said around 4:45 a.m.
"I'm just not happy that I'm sitting here on the line waiting for 30 minutes and my flight is boarding in 15 and nobody is doing anything about it," traveler Chris Baumann said on her way to Myrtle Beach.
Fortunately, things did clear up once security was able to clear the backlog of travelers.
"I've never seen it like this but it's moving," Debbie Foster said on the security line before her flight to Florida.
Many people filled the benches around the terminal hours before their flights to be extra prepared. It paid off for Diana Brathwaite who watched the lines form and die down as she waited for a family member before going through TSA.
"Traffic has been kind of hectic so I decided to leave home early," Braithwaite said.
It was all smiles for a pair of longtime friends from Long Island who arrived at the terminal later in the morning. They were able to get through security in minutes on their way to South Carolina.
"I'm thankful to be going to visit my family down in Myrtle Beach and to be traveling with my friend for 40 years," Jennifer Dittrich said.
