Travelers departing PHL after Thanksgiving holiday

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Early bird travelers sailing through security at Philadelphia International Sunday, beating the expected rush of commuters on one of the busiest thanksgiving travel seasons in close to a decade.

"Nobody's awake now."

"We're just flat out lucky."

John and Paula are heading home to Wyoming.

They found a nearly empty airport at 7am. It was the calm before storm.

By late morning the crowds had landed. Lines building at security check in.

"Almost 49 million people expected to travel in all this thanksgiving holiday. Philly is one of the top spots for all those commuters you can tell that by the line the airport thinks today is going to be even busier than on Wednesday."

Still the lines of passengers were moving and flowing. Seasoned travelers alloyed pleasantly surprised.

"I showed up very early expecting to be back there."

"It really is a little busy but actually it has been worse lines have been all the way back so actually this is sort of ok."