Headaches for Thanksgiving travelers heading home on one of busiest travel days of year

WASHINGTON - One of the busiest travel days of the year has already proven to be a headache for those heading home from Thanksgiving. Airport officials were expecting 74,000 people to start or end their trip at Reagan National as the Thanksgiving holiday weekend came to a close.

Along Rt. 1 Sunday night, FOX 5's Evan Lambert reports it took more than an hour to drive just a little over a mile from Crystal City to the terminal of Reagan National.

Reagan officials recommended travelers drop-off or pick-up at Metro stations including Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Braddock Road Metro stops instead of the airport due to congestion.

Those who were heading out Sunday evening were told to plan ahead for backups.

Travelers at Reagan National say navigating through the airport took longer than expected.

"Trying to return my car takes about 45 minutes to an hour. Pretty crazy I imagine from everybody trying to get back from Thanksgiving, but yea trying to get home. Most important thing," said David Giron.

"Nothing but a mess. I thought I landed at 7 I should be at my hotel by 8:00 after getting a rental.
I can see the bus coming, but 15 minutes it took them to come to here," said Ashoka Patel.

Many travelers have been impacted by the large winter storm striking the central Midwest on Sunday, as roughly 600 flights headed to or from the U.S. had been canceled as of 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.