Travelers pack O'Hare, Midway airports ahead of Thanksgiving

CHICAGO (WLS) -- O'Hare Airport was bustling with travelers Monday morning.

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest weeks of the year to travel with packed airports and highways across the country. This Thanksgiving travel period is expected to see record-breaking numbers for people hitting the skies.

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"I'm going to Arizona to visit my two sisters," traveler Sharon Ross said.

Adam Julien and his family are en-route to the happiest place on Earth: Disney. The excitement was palpable from these first-time visitors.

"I'm excited to go to Florida and hang out at Disney with everybody," the kids said. "Princesses are going to be there!"

Ibolya Miko is meeting up with her children in Chicago before they all head to the Dominican Republic, together.

"My daughter is coming with her family from Detroit." Miko said.

Her grandson was the first to spot her, cuing the all-familiar airport run-to-grandma embrace.

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For those traveling this week, plan for longer lines at security and potential delays or cancellations as airports are packed with larger schedules than usual.

Dan and Mabel Harri had their flight delayed to Ft. Lauderdale Sunday.

"Planes were backed up yesterday, mechanical problems," they said. "Got delayed all day. We left our home at seven in the morning and we got to our hotel room at 11 o'clock last night. So we had to get up this morning."

Airlines, preparing for an all-time high. According to the organization "Airlines for America" more than 31 million passengers are expected to fly over Thanksgiving . That's a 5% increase from last year.

The Federal Aviation Administration expects Tuesday to be the busiest day to fly.

Oscar Ramirez was rushing to gather up his crew Monday morning to head to Mexico to visit family.

"It is very hectic," Ramirez said. "There's a lot of people. It's very hard to get through, parking, everything. So we have to take at least three hours minimum to be able to make it in."

In the United terminal, they'll be flying nearly 60,000 seats a day out of O'Hare. That's up 16% compared to last year.

The airline added nationwide 400 extra flights a day.