Valley Travelers Begin Holiday Rush : Thanksgiving: Thousands in area get a jump on nation’s biggest travel weekend and head to the airport, train station and freeways.

Stan Hanes thought he wouldn’t make it home for Thanksgiving. After waking up late and having car trouble, the 32-year-old writer from Studio City dashed through Burbank Airport’s main terminal at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, convinced he had missed his flight to Oakland.

But, sweating nervously and bumping into fellow travelers with his overstuffed carry-on bag, he managed to reach the boarding gate with time to spare.

“I’m such a worrier,” Hanes said, relieved. “I kept thinking, if I miss my flight, I’ll miss Thanksgiving and my mom won’t speak to me.”

Thanksgiving weekend is traditionally the biggest travel period in the United States each year, and in the San Fernando Valley, the rush to get out of town began early Wednesday.

Meanwhile, even some people staying home for the holiday were still frantically working on minor details--such as Thanksgiving dinner.

At Burbank Airport, passengers were checking in as much as 90 minutes before flights departed about 6 a.m. The thick fog that had delayed morning flights earlier in the week was absent, which allowed virtually all flights to leave on time.

“The flights are pretty tight, but everything’s running pretty smoothly and we don’t seem to be having any delays,” airport spokeswoman Angela Cranon said.

Executives of the airport’s two major carriers, United and Southwest airlines, said nearly every flight out of Burbank had been completely booked Wednesday and only a handful of seats remained for planes leaving today.

Airport administrators said they were expecting a 3% increase in passenger traffic over last Thanksgiving, with about 120,000 people expected to use the airport this weekend.

Although movement generally was unhindered, the hectic holiday pace was evident wherever travelers were found. Buses leaving for Los Angeles International Airport from the FlyAway terminal in Van Nuys were at or near capacity, and vehicles were being turned away from the terminal’s overnight parking lot.

In Glendale, the city’s usually tranquil Amtrak train station was fairly bustling Wednesday afternoon.

“I thought it would be nice to leave a day earlier and take the scenic route,” said Dena Carr, 44, of Sunland, waiting to board a train en route to a family dinner in Las Vegas. California Highway Patrol officials said San Fernando Valley-area freeways are expected to be particularly packed as drivers continue leaving the area today and return home over the weekend. A heavy fog could exacerbate problems in the evenings and early mornings.

“All the major arterials are going to be clogged, especially the 5 [Golden State Freeway] heading north,” CHP spokeswoman Kerri Hawkins said.

All weekend the CHP will be in a “maximum enforcement period,” deploying a large number of officers to patrol freeways, Hawkins said.

“In the past, this has been a weekend that has had a lot of fatalities, so we’re going to be out there watching for drunk drivers,” she said.

Throughout Wednesday, logjams of a different sort occurred at local retail stores that stocked everything from precooked honey-roasted turkeys to pumpkin pies and whipped cream. Some wise shoppers had placed their orders far in advance; others waited until the last minute.

“The kids aren’t coming over this year, so I just realized it wasn’t worth all the trouble to cook,” said Glendale resident Dina Hewes, emerging Wednesday afternoon with a turkey, stuffing, potatoes and other fixings from the Pavilions store in Burbank. Deli workers there had only a few birds left, but were preparing about 100 to sell today.

At the HoneyBaked Ham Co. store in Northridge, owner Ron Reynolds said an estimated 1,000 shoppers were expected to pass through the doors for ham, turkeys, pork roasts and pies.

Precooked meals have been especially popular, he said.

“This way, you can spend more time with your family, rather than being in the kitchen cooking,” Reynolds said.