As the Thanksgiving weekend draws to a close, the TSA expected Sunday to be the busiest travel day of the season, screening tens of thousands of departing travelers at Boston’s Logan International Airport.
The Transportation Security Administration at Logan Airport said in a statement that it expects to potentially screen more than 70,000 people Sunday. The government said there were more than 68,000 departing passengers at Logan on the Friday before Thanksgiving, another major travel day.
As of 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Logan Airport announced seven flights were canceled and 188 were delayed. Aviation surveillance website Flight Aware.
National Airlines said the Boston area was expected to experience severe weather Sunday night into early Monday morning with rain and winds of 25 to 35 mph, but the timing will disrupt most people’s travel plans. I don’t think that will happen. Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Bryce Williams.
“This evening starts close to midnight and we don’t expect it to have a significant impact on people for the most part. [the rain] I’m going to be out of here by 6 or 7 a.m.,” Williams said in a phone interview Sunday.
Winds of up to 80 mph were expected to hit Cape Cod, Nantucket Island and Martha’s Vineyard Sunday night into Monday, but no wind damage was expected, especially since many trees have already shed their leaves. said Williams.
Across the United States, the busiest time to drive on Sunday was between 3 and 5 p.m. However, the best time was before noon. Report from AAA.
Construction work scheduled on major roads outside of designated work zones has been postponed until 5 a.m. Monday to facilitate post-holiday road travel, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
At about 10:30 a.m., Boston’s South Station was busy, but not crowded. Groups of train travelers stood or sat around the concourse, looking at the giant departure schedule hanging overhead.
Many passengers flocked to Dunkin’, Nero Express and McDonald’s to buy coffee, pastries and burgers before departure, resulting in several lines.
Christine Kouropoulos, 24, a traveler from Brooklyn, New York, was waiting to catch an Amtrak train home after visiting family in Boston for Thanksgiving. Her sister drove her to South Station, and she said she didn’t encounter much traffic on the way.
“It was very easy,” Koropoulos said. “I often take this train to New York, and I’ve had much worse days with traffic compared to this.”
Bailey Allen can be reached at bailey.allen@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @baileyaallen.