For America's airports and freeways, Thursday was no holiday.
Bay Area airports are seeing the highest number of travelers since the pandemic began.
AAA reported more than 55 million people will travel more than 50 miles from home this weekend, including 7.5 million Californians.
At SFO, 150,000 travelers went through last Friday, with about 143,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
But the numbers were not nearly as high Thursday. In fact, many people said they deliberately picked Thanksgiving to fly out.
“We are traveling to india. We chose today because it’s less traffic. Less lines at the airport. Easier to travel overall,” said Manju of Livermore. “It took us 45 minutes straight from Livermore, with no traffic, no stopping. That was the best part.”
Travelers who arrived at SFO Thursday said they were relieved to finally were a peaceful airport.
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“The traveling was cool. No stress. Everything was successful. No traffic. No delays. Everything went well,” said Collins Ero of Nigeria.
The crowds have also been robust this past week at Oakland airport, and again, dropped off sharply Thursday.
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“It's been good. Whooo. I was a little nervous about this Thanksgiving travel but everything was smooth. No one at the airport. It’s ’game day’ so it got me ready for the day!” said Thomas Samuel of Castro Valley.
At San Jose Mineta International, a student visiting home from college said the biggest difference from the past couple of days was the ease of catching a ride.
“Yesterday, finding Ubers or Lyfts was much more hectic,” said Isabella Madrigal of Monterey. “And was, like, crazy to get a ride to the airport compared to today.”
As relatively low-key as airports were earlier in the day Thursday, it largely got even quieter as Thanksgiving went along.
So while travelers missed a little bit of the holiday, they missed a lot of hassle as well. And for that, they’re thankful.
