Few hiccups as travelers return home from Thanksgiving holiday

Holiday travelers heading home Sunday after a long weekend of turkey, leftovers and holiday shopping found heavy crowds but few problems at Chicago's two airports.

A spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation said Sunday that few flights were canceled and delays were minimal for the estimated 311,000 passengers traveling through Midway Airport and O'Hare International Airport.

"Certainly, the weather has been kind to everyone -- travelers, airports and all transportation agencies and avenues alike," spokeswoman Karen Pride said Sunday. "We're very happy that there have been a minimal number of delays for flights and not a lot of crowds at the airports."

Sunday was the busiest travel day of the 10-day Thanksgiving holiday at Midway with an estimated 80,000 travelers. Across town, about 231,000 passengers traveled through gates at O'Hare.

Monday was expected to be even busier at the nation's second-busiest airport, with 237,000 passengers, Pride said.

All told, nearly 3 million passengers were expected to visit the two airports during the Thanksgiving holiday period that began Nov. 16 and ends Monday.

Meanwhile, extra-long Amtrak trains ferried passengers across Illinois.

To accommodate surplus crowds, Amtrak authorities queued up passengers in Union Station's Great Hall in downtown Chicago.

"Almost everyone needs to get from their Thanksgiving holiday to work or home or school by tomorrow morning," said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. "Today is a very busy day."