Holiday travel winds down with busy Sunday

November 29, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- As the long holiday weekend wrapped up, hundreds of thousands of people passed through Chicago's airports Sunday.

It's one of the busiest travel days of the year.

It was quiet at the Midway Airport departures area Sunday night, though there was some activity still in arrivals.

About 70,000 people were expected to pass through Midway Sunday, and most seemed to have a relatively easy time of it.

"It's been great, especially with Southwest. Got my ticket 24 hours in advance and all I have to do is check in my luggage," Thelma Gilden said.

"Been really smooth so far, Omaha is a smaller airport, it gets less traffic, so this the hard part. Once I get to Omaha, it'll be fine," Shannon Freck said.

Triple A slight decrease in travelers This year, AAA said there was a slight decrease in the number of air travelers, baggage and surcharges being part of the reason.

It may have led others to take ground transportation, like Greyhound.

"It's cheaper. A plane ticket could run you a couple hundred dollars, whereas with Greyhound, 55, 60 bucks gets you a ticket," Kenny Winters said.

A spokesman for Greyhound said a lot more people were taking the bus these days, and several buses were added to the schedule to accommodate the travel.

The train station was also busy, but it was the roads that showed the greatest number of travelers. Nationwide, more than 32 million took to the roads this holiday weekend.

Trish Oberhaus made it back to Chicago from St. Louis earlier in the day.

"Good times, spent time with the family then went to my best friend's wedding, good holiday weekend," Trish Oberhaus said.

While today was Midway's busiest day was Sunday, Monday it will be O'Hare's turn. It's estimated some 200,000 passengers will go through its terminals tomorrow.

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