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Northeast storm starting to affect Thanksgiving travelers at LAX

Passengers line up outside LAX Terminal 5 on Wednesday as flight delays and bad weather on the East Coast threatened to disrupt travel plans.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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As a large storm threatened the East on the busiest travel day of the year, Los Angeles International Airport was preparing for how it would be affected.

Some of the most popular areas for Angelenos to fly are San Francisco and Las Vegas, but other common destinations like Chicago, New York and Boston were expected to be a slog for travelers on Wednesday.

“For the early morning rush, it was fine, but we’re starting to see Midwest cities like Dallas and Chicago, and New York” have to delay some flights because of weather, said Nancy Castles of Los Angeles World Airports.

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Officials at LAX say more than 2 million passengers will pass through the airport in the 11-day period that started Friday. The busiest day is expected to be Sunday, with some 220,000 travelers passing through LAX. Monday will see similar crowds, Castles said.

Officials are advising travelers to check the time of their flights with airlines before going to LAX and to arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Many travelers had arrived at the airport so early Wednesday that screening checkpoints had yet to open.

“While we have sunny weather right now, the fact that somewhere else has winter weather is going to delay their departure,” Castles said.

The “pretty heavy rush” at LAX early Wednesday morning had slowed down but was expected to pick back up around 11 a.m., she added.

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Twitter: @aribloomekatz | Facebook

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

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