High Gas Costs No Barrier to Holiday Travel

D A L L A S, Nov. 22 -- Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

The heaviest travel period of the year has gotten under way withthe first wave of Thanksgiving travelers streaming onto highwaysand into the skies toward their holiday turkey dinners.

A record 38.9 million Americans plan to trek at least 100 milesfrom home this Thanksgiving, according to the American AutomobileAssociation. That’s up 4 percent from last year.

Four out of five people — 31.6 million travelers — will journeyby car, the AAA said, based on a survey of 1,300 people. Another7.3 million will travel by airplane, train or bus.

Gas Prices No Roadblock

The increase in travel plans comes despite the average cost ofgasoline up by more than 25 cents a gallon from a year ago andairfares up an average of 13 percent.

The jump also comes as wintry weather returns to many parts ofthe East. A storm dumped 2 feet of snow on Buffalo, N.Y., thisweek, and flurries were in the forecast Wednesday for elsewhere inthe Northeast and the Great Lakes region.

Airline and airport officials had one eye on the weather and theother on labor disputes that threatened to cause holiday traveldelays or cancellations (see related story).

Lines at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport security gatesand baggage-check counters moved steadily Tuesday, but there werelong waits at the fast-food counters, and empty seats were hard tofind in the terminal.

Liz Board of DeKalb, Ill., traveling from O’Hare with her threechildren, packed extra snacks and hoped her United flight wouldtake off as planned.

“If they botch it up this time, I think that they realize thattheir name is going to be bad for a long time,” she said.

Riding the Rails

Amtrak officials were bracing for what they expected to be theirbusiest day of the year — a projected 115,000 passengers Wednesday.The railway company expected 580,000 riders during Thanksgivingweek, up from 420,000 in an average week.