Logan braces for holiday travelers

After steady rain delayed hundreds of flights by 30 minutes or more yesterday, Logan International Airport officials were expecting more than 80,000 pre-Thanksgiving travelers today and smoother operations.

To help make sure, the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, redeployed more than a dozen officials who usually work at desk jobs to fill in as greeters and troubleshooters yesterday and today. They are complementing full staffs of airline gate agents, State Police, and security screeners.

''Everybody's happy once you help them along and point them in the right direction," said Kevin Gabel, who usually works as a computer-aided design specialist producing architectural drawings for Massport's property management office. Yesterday afternoon he was sporting a blue vest and an eye-catching yellow clipboard with a big red question-mark on the back as he greeted passengers walking into Logan's Terminal C, helping them find their way to gates for Continental, JetBlue, and United flights or to restrooms and restaurants.

Massport officials are expecting today's passenger load to be about 5 percent higher than the 76,000 daily average. Airport spokesman Phil Orlandella said most flights leaving Logan will be 92 to 100 percent full. Because the forecast calls for only possible snow flurries this morning and sunny skies by afternoon, there should be fewer, shorter flight delays than yesterday.

As steady, sometimes heavy rain fell yesterday morning, scores of flights were held on the ground at Logan for 30 minutes or longer, and by afternoon cumulative earlier delays were still causing inbound flights to arrive 21 to 25 minutes late on average.

Although the days around Thanksgiving remain one of the most intense periods for air travel all year, airline and airport officials have found that over the last decade, passengers are increasingly spreading out their travel over the week. This has softened what in the past could be a Wednesday before Thanksgiving, which 10 or 20 years ago might draw 30 to 40 percent more passengers than an average day.

''We've seen that the old peak spike on Wednesday has been spread out over Monday through Thursday morning during the Thanksgiving week," said Brad Martin, who manages Massport's 52-person public services operation that staffs Logan information booths, call centers, and passenger assistance operations in terminals.

Still, airlines are expecting a record number of passengers to fly this holiday. Air Transport Association, an airline trade group, estimates that between last Friday and this coming Tuesday, 21.7 million people will fly on US airlines, a slight increase from last year.

As of last evening, Logan still had parking available on the airport grounds and was not yet diverting cars to off-airport lots. Logan Express buses from Braintree, Framingham, Peabody, and Woburn -- which are offering nearly half-priced $11 round-trip rides through Saturday -- were operating at 85 percent full.

The day Logan officials are most bracing for is Sunday, when ''we're going to have five days of travel all coming back," Orlandella said. The airport is preparing to dispatch 9,000 taxis Sunday, more than double the normal 4,000 daily cab trips.

Security line waits were minimal at Logan most of yesterday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Earlier this week, the airport began offering what it calls ''traveler totes," plastic bags that passengers in security lines can use to gather up their coins, keys, cellphones, and other pocket paraphernalia before they get to screening machines. Sprint Nextel Corp. donated the bags and advertises on them.

Martin said Logan copied the idea from other airports including Washington Reagan National and the airports in Seattle and Phoenix and the tactic seems to be helping people get through security more quickly. ''Every few seconds help," Martin said. ''It all adds up."

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.