LAX recovering from flight delays amid holiday crush

Some departure delays and cancellations continued Thursday morning at Los Angeles International Airport but operations improved overnight.

Airport spokeswoman Mary Grady says the recovery has been significant after weather problems, increased numbers of flights and high number of passengers slowed operations down Wednesday.

Airport police Chief Dave Maggard says there were also three incidents of unattended bags that brought out the bomb squad.

Aircraft normally depart LAX to the west but winds associated with Wednesday’s arrival of a wet weather system forced planes to take off toward the east, which Grady says tends to slow down operations.

The airport averages 1,750 to 1,800 flight operations a day, but on Wednesday there were about 1,900.

Wednesday was projected as the busiest day of the holiday period, with nearly 239,000 travelers.