Eastern Iowans travel home after holiday weekend

AAA says more Americans are hitting the road this Thanksgiving holiday. The agency estimates an 11% increase in travel from last year. 1,100 travelers left from the Eastern Iowa Airport on Wednesday. Some of those travelers made their way back home Sunday.

Most holiday travelers left the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This weekend wraps up the festivities.

It was consistent traffic at the Eastern Iowa Airport as travelers left family and friends in Cedar Rapids or made it back to the area. “Sunday will be another larger travel day because that's when everybody will go back home,” said Eastern Iowa Airport's Pam Hinman.

And as Waterloo's Ellaysa Newton and her daughter made their way back home after the holiday they had to go

through security checkpoints at a much larger airport in New York City. “We always kind of expect a lot of people for the holidays,” said traveler Ellaysa Newton. But Newton says it wasn't too bad. Even with news of full body scans or pat downs, she says the lines seemed to be under control. “I think people make things to be more than what they really are so we didn't have a problem."

North Liberty's Carol Haack agrees. “I've flown quite a bit and still haven't encountered one. They're out there I know,” said Haack. Hacck has a medical condition that might slow down her security screening. “I have an ostomy, but they didn't have any full body scans in Dallas or San Juan."

The Eastern Iowa Airport does not currently have full body scans, so going through security checkpoints was similar to previous years. According to Hinman, the Sunday before Thanksgiving was the busiest day for travel out of the airport.