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Thanksgiving Air Travel Crunch in Full Swing

File photo by by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
IT'S THE MONDAY before Thanksgiving. But the holiday travel rush has already begun — and the crunch at the airports and on the roads and rails will likely only grow more intense. (Sorry.)

In order to ease travelers' pain, President Bush last week announced a plan to open up certain "restricted use" military airspace for domestic flights — essentially express lanes in the skies. Which sounds like a great idea. However, if your air travel plans take you through the Northeast, including Washington, the plan might not help you all that much.

As The Atlantic's James Fallows wrote over the weekend:

The plan does nothing at all about the fundamental source of most airline delays: that big hub airports simply don't have enough runways for all the flights the airlines would like to schedule for busy times.
So, how can you avoid holiday hell? First off, allow plenty of extra travel time. And be sure to check area airports' Web sites (links below) for parking restrictions, security alerts and other potential delays before leaving the house. Good luck.

» Dulles Int'l Airport [IAD]
» Reagan National Airport [DCA]
» Baltimore/Washington Int'l Thurgood Marshall Airport [BWI]

» "Reagan National Gears Up for Parking, Passenger Crunch" [Sun Gazette]
» "Find Out Which Days Will Be Busiest, How to Avoid Delays, Biggest Airport Mistakes" [ABC News]
» "About That Plan to 'Speed Up' Thanksgiving Air Travel" [James Fallows/The Atlantic]

File photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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