Travelers in the Los Angeles area were pleasantly surprised this week as LAX travel proved to be nothing short of smooth flying, even on November 21st, the day before Thanksgiving, which is considered the busiest travel day of the year.

Many thought traveling Wednesday would be an absolute nightmare. After numerous reported security delays, and an expected overflow of air traffic, president Bush opened up military airways to accommodate more holiday travelers. These factors and many predicted delays caused travelers to arrive at the airport hours ahead of time, just to be safe.

“I was dreading the wait and expected the worst, but I’ve had no trouble so far,” said Bob Cramer of Lancaster who is off to see his daughter for the long weekend holiday.

“A half an hour wait is the fastest time I’ve ever made it through security at this airport, and today there was no wait at all, it was unbelievable” Cramer said.

As major network news stations stood by waiting for the hustle and bustle to begin, lines moved along quickly and there was no delay from the curbside check-in, to the gate.

The added security and staff provided by the airport was apparently working, and to the traveler’s advantage.

“I was nervous,” said Tyler Klaus, a Kinesiology Major at CSUN who commuted to LAX from Northridge.

I arrived at the airport 30 minutes late because I took the shuttle, and it was still no trouble,” said Klaus.

“Last year during Christmas my flight was supposed to leave on December 20th, but I couldn’t leave until Christmas Eve because of all the delays, so I’m surprised,” said Klaus.

According to AAA, 80 percent of all travelers between Wednesday and Sunday were scheduled to drive instead of fly, which helped lighten the traffic on the runways.

Airport officials agreed that things ran exceptionally well under the circumstances.

Some airports around the country feared that weather conditions would further complicate the traffic on land and in the sky.

They envisioned backed up gates and uneasy passengers, but these fears failed to materialize, as flights arrived and departed all across the country with few delays of any kind.

“This year was unbelievably smooth, I think mainly because many travelers decided to leave the week before, which was smart of them,” said a representative from United Airlines.

It seemed that the biggest problem at LAX this season was finding a seat to snooze in while departing flights waited to take Los Angeles residents home for turkey day.