Record Number Of Holiday Travelers Moving Across U.S.

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- A record number of holiday travelers are moving across the country Friday morning and while the weather has delayed many trips, those in South Florida are finding it to be smooth sailing... in the air, that is.

Alanna Edwards flew into Ft. Lauderdale from Atlanta Friday afternoon. She had one big worry from past experiences.

"Long lines," she said. "Last year I got stuck in Atlanta, I was afraid of that but it went pretty well."

A third of the country is on the move with 103 million Americans traveling for the holidays. That's 1.5 million more than last year.

At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, there were scattered delays but most flights ran on time.

"Fort Lauderdale airport is always very, very gracious," said Edwards. "Everyone's friendly. We look forward to traveling out of here for the holiday."

Airport officials in both Broward and Miami-Dade said they're prepared for the deluge of travelers, recommending that travelers arrive two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international flight.

"Everybody down here said it was gonna take forever to get here, with bad traffic, but it ended up being pretty easy," said Josh Montgomery, who got to Ft. Lauderdale in plenty of time for his flight to California.

Six million Americans are flying this holiday season or trying to but AAA says the vast majority of travelers are driving – about 93 million on the roads.

Airport and other travel delays are expected through the day Friday and the weekend as the Northwest and Upper Midwest deal with a winter storm expected to bring snow and blizzard like conditions.