Travelers Will Need Stomach for Traffic : Thanksgiving: The county is bucking national predictions for decreased highway travel. Both CHP and airport officials expect increased traffic this year.

Nationally, more people are expected to fly and fewer will drive during this Thanksgiving holiday, but Orange County travelers may not be going the way of the nation.

Motorists and airline passengers can all expect more congestion than last year both on freeways and at John Wayne Airport. Orange County is bucking national predictions for highway travel, according to the American Automobile Assn., which has forecast an appreciable drop in automobile trips because of the recession.

The local office of the California Highway Patrol and officials at John Wayne Airport are anticipating increases in traffic and airline passengers over the next four days, with today and Sunday seeing the highest number of travelers.

“We are expecting a heavier volume than last year,” said Pat Ware, a spokeswoman for John Wayne Airport. “Flights coming in and leaving are going to be pretty full. (Today) and Sunday will be pretty rough days, so allow a little extra time to get to the terminal and for check-in.”

John Wayne officials estimate that about 63,000 passengers will use the Thomas F. Riley Terminal from today to Sunday. That’s up about 3,000 people over the same period last year.

To handle the added volume, airport authorities have temporarily opened the Main Street remote parking lot, which was closed during the summer because of a lack of use. The move will add 1,829 spots to the current supply of 4,772 parking spaces. Parking is $1 an hour or $7 a day, with free shuttle service to the airport.

Ware said the easiest days for air travel will be Thanksgiving Day, Friday and Saturday, when the volume of passengers will be reduced almost half.

“We are anticipating the same thing systemwide,” said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines in Ft. Worth, which has flights out of John Wayne. “Sunday will be the heaviest-traveled day of the Thanksgiving season, followed by Wednesday. Thanksgiving morning is not a bad time to travel.”

The Air Transport Assn., a trade organization for the airline industry, estimates that about 9 million people will fly from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2, an increase of 1% to 2% over a year ago. The association also is projecting Christmas and New Year’s air travel will be up by a similar percentage, with 24 million people expected to fly between Dec. 19 and Jan. 4.

Air travel is expected to rise from a year ago, when the oncoming recession and the Persian Gulf crisis hurt the airlines, industry officials say.

The Air Transport Assn. figures include all air travel. The American Automobile Assn., which looks only at holiday-related travel, is projecting a similar increase in people flying or using other non-automotive transportation for Thanksgiving trips.

The AAA predicts that 19.5 million people will travel 100 miles or more from home by auto to observe the holiday. That’s 4% lower than the 20.4 million who ventured out last Thanksgiving, according to the auto club.

Although gas prices are sharply lower this year, the AAA projection of holiday motorists is the lowest since the organization began its survey during the height of the economic boom in 1985.

“Since that time, travel has decreased fairly constantly on this holiday,” said Geoff Sundstrom, a national spokesman for the club. “It’s not as though we’ve been booming on at record-high levels and we suddenly dropped this year.”

Sundstrom blames the decline nationally in car use on the recession, although the average price of gas is about 22 cents cheaper this week than it was a year ago, when Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait rumbled through the oil market.

This year, it appears, more people may just skip holiday travel altogether, he predicted.

“When economic times are tough, we generally expect to see more people using their car for travel,” Sundstrom said. “That’s because auto travel is the (cheapest) way to take a vacation. When we see auto travel actually declining, that’s a good indication to us that people are really feeling pinched.”

But Officer Kevin B. Livingston, a spokesman for the CHP office in Santa Ana, said the agency expects more traffic this year than last in Orange County because the population has increased. The CHP is increasing the number of officers on the road by 20% for the holiday.

Livingston said the only major road in Orange County that will have lanes closed for Thanksgiving Day is Ortega Highway in South County. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., travel will be restricted to one lane between Cristianitos and Lucas Canyon roads to accommodate construction.

The most heavily used highways, Interstates 5 and the San Diego Freeway, will have a full complement of lanes, but the going is expected to be slow throughout much of the day. An average drive to San Diego from parts of Orange County, Livingston said, could take up to 2 1/2 hours, almost twice as long as normal.

“If you are driving anywhere, give yourself plenty of time, don’t be impatient and don’t drive on the shoulders,” Livingston warned. “Make sure your car is in good working order. Check the brakes, tires and coolant.”