Airports see few delays despite planned protests

Airports nationwide reported few major disruptions early Wednesday despite a loosely organized campaign dubbed National Opt-Out Day that urged air travelers to boycott the controversial full-body scanners at security checkpoints.

No serious disruptions were reported at any major airports early Wednesday. On the East Coast, airports in Washington, D.C.; greater New York; Boston; Richmond and Norfolk, Va.; and Harrisburg, Pa.; reported security delays of less than 15 minutes. At Baltimore-Washington International, there were no waits and only four travelers opted out of the full-body scans. In Denver and Tampa, Fla., airport security waits were under 20 minutes.

Marisa Maola, TSA security director, said there have been "no signs" of a protest and some security lines are actually shorter today than in previous day-before-Thanksgivings. "We haven't had an unusual number of people opt-out of the back scanner X-rays," Maola said.

"New York travelers are savvy," said LaGuardia Airport General Manager Tom Bosco. "They used to all fly out the day or two before the holiday. Now it's spread out over a week. And we've added staff to make it smoother."

In Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, Kansas City, Des Moines and Omaha, Neb., it was business as usual.

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Retirees Bill and Margaret Selfridge arrived three hours early at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to ensure that security delays did not make them miss their flight to Washington, D.C. But it took only 10 minutes to get through the checkpoint at 8 a.m.