Orbitz names busiest airports this holiday season

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Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

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Unless you consider procrastination an art form, you’ve probably booked your Thanksgiving travel by now. And in that case, you’ve already committed to flying through particular airports. If so, Orbitz’ list of busiest airports around Thanksgiving can at least serve as the heads-up for airports where you can expect all the things that come along with large numbers of travelers. You know, the packed airport parking lots, the massively congested drop-off corridors, the long check-in and security lines, and so on.

Orbitz provides a top ten list for both domestic and international destinations, but I’ll just give you a sampling of the “winners.” Chicago O’Hare takes top honors, followed by LAX in Los Angeles, Denver International Airport, and La Guardia in New York. Atlanta rounds out the top five.

Internationally, the top three are Cancun, Mexico; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

If you’re flying into, out of, or through any of these airports, remember to arrive early and bring a book. And all the better if that book is about stress management or finding inner peace.

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