Weather complicates plans for holiday travelers at SFO

SAN FRANCISCO - Tuesday's rainy weather complicated plans for travelers just as the busy holiday travel season is picking up steam. By afternoon, the rain gave way to clear skies, and travelers say getting around is getting pretty easy after a rough start in the morning.

With less than a week to go until Christmas, travelers are crisscrossing the skies and filling up the airports. 

At San Francisco International Airport, heavy rain had some worried they'd get stuck. "I'm excited to get home for Christmas and just, with all these lines, pray I don't miss my flight," Reagan Karsich from Cincinnati, Ohio said. 

Over the course of the day, SFO would report about 200 or about 20% of all flights were delayed, and two flights were canceled. Some travelers said while the trip to see loved ones was worth it, they definitely had a lot of company along the way. 

"Yeah, it was pretty busy, pretty busy," Anurag Singh from Boston said. "But, we had a direct flight, so we didn't rush into any problems. So, it was good, yeah."

Over the course of the day, the weather cleared, and an increasing number of passengers reported easy trips. "It was on time," Rajesh Thyagarjan from Columbus, Indiana said. "The flight out of Indiana was at about 7 a.m. Indiana time. 

Which is about 11 local time, so, it was on time."

While the skies may have cleared, the same wasn't always true for the roads leading in and out of the airport. "Coming from a small town looking at all this traffic is a big deal, right," Thyagarjan said.

"Our airport is not as big as this one is."

As those flights came in, those picking them up had to contend with heavy traffic. "It was a little bit too crowded," Brian Strange said. 

While it was certainly busy at SFO, the Federal Aviation Administration is predicting that Thursday is going to be the busiest travel day of the holiday season with close to 49,000 flights set to take to the air tomorrow, 2,000 more than today.