There was much ado about airport security, and invasive airport scanners and pat-downs, in the days and weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. This was accompanied by talk of protests against scanners, and a prediction that the refusal to go through full-body scanners at airports will result in snaking lines and delays during one of the busiest days of the year.

According to a feature on The Washington Post, the promised battalions of protesters did not turn up at airports; there were a couple or so sprinkled across various terminals, but that was basically it. They handed out leaflets and held up signs, but the protests did not exactly delay a significant number of people.

As expected, there were throngs of travelers in the major airports: New York, Atlanta, Kansas City, Mo., Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of them traveled without untoward confrontations with airport security.

There was a delay that happened over the weekend in the East Coast, according to the Post, but it did not happen at the airports as initially predicted; it happened, instead, on the I-95 in Delaware, caused by construction at a toll plaza. The delays got so bad that it got to a point that travelers were able to pass toll-free.

Despite the fact that holiday air travelers came prepared to wait it out, they were greeted instead by swift lines and cheery airport security agents.
Judith Gilbert of Arlington County was traveling to Connecticut, and arrived three hours early at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport for her flight. “I have my food. I have my water. I expected to stand in line for hours,” Gilbert shared – but that didn’t happen.