Record Thanksgiving travel rush off to a smooth start despite snowy forecast

The late crush of holiday travelers picked up steam Wednesday, with about 2.7m people expected to board flights and millions more planning to drive or take the train to Thanksgiving celebrations. Airline officials say they are confident they can avoid the kind of massive disruptions that have marred past holiday seasons, such as the meltdown at Southwest Airlines over last Christmas. As of Wednesday evening that appeared to be the case. US airports reported 59 flight cancellations into, out of or within the US Wednesday and 2,750 flight delays, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. FlightAware said anything less than 300 cancellations and 4,000 delays per day is considered very good. Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York said it was checking all vehicles arriving at the airport and performing additional security screenings after a car crashed and exploded at a nearby checkpoint on the US-Canada border. But the airport said it remained open and fully operational. All four border crossings in the area were closed, the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission said. Security lines at airports could be long. Delta Air Lines is telling passengers to arrive at the airport at least two hours before their flight if they are traveling within the United States, three hours early if they’re flying overseas — and maybe earlier on Sunday and Monday. The TSA said it screened more than 2.6m passengers Tuesday and it expected another 2.7m passengers to come through airport security on Wednesday. On Sunday, it expects to screen 2.9m passengers, which would surpass a previous record set on June 30. Lines ebbed and flowed all morning Wednesday at Moynihan Train Hall in New York. Some travelers said they opted to travel by train for convenience or lower prices. Others said they just wanted to avoid any chaos at the airport.<br/>