For the second time in its history, a gridlocked Bush Field was closed to incoming traffic, and planes circled in holding patterns Thursday as spectators flooded into Augusta for the Masters.

By 10 a.m., no spaces were left for corporate and private planes to park, although commercial carriers continued to ferry passengers in and out, said Mike Gunn, tower chief at Bush Field. Corporate and private planes were allowed to land as others left and space became available.

``Next year, they might have to start handing out passes to land,'' said air traffic controller Carl Chesley jokingly. ``It's going to be as bad as the Masters tournament. We'll have pilots out at the end of the runway, holding signs saying `Need Tickets.'''

Filled to capacity, the airport had to turn away incoming planes on the Friday of Masters Week 1996, the first time ever, Gunn said. They hadn't expected to be that busy Thursday but are anticipating the same congestion today.

``We've had to refuse some folks,'' said Bill Thompson, operations manager at Bush Field. ``We've let some people come in and offload their passengers and leave.''

At noon Thursday, 134 planes were sitting on the ground at Bush Field, compared to a high of 108 planes in 1996, according to figures from Bush Field Aviation. In constant motion, planes lined up for takeoff or taxied in from flight, behemoths moving in a slow, stately ballet up and down the taxiways.

Throughout the week, the airport has handled significantly more traffic than last year, Gunn said. Daniel Field also has seen an increase - only about 30 spaces were left for planes to park at Daniel Field at noon Thursday.

Daniel Tower, which only operates during the Masters, has been staffed by six visiting air traffic controllers. No additional controllers were brought into the Bush Field tower, although traffic increases 200 percent during the Masters and employees work six days a week, Gunn said.

Bush Field doesn't hire additional workers during the Masters because of security and training concerns, Thompson said.

Some planes were able to reroute from Bush Field to Daniel Field, but many were too large and wouldn't have enough runway to land safely, Gunn said. Some were grounded in other cities before they could take off for Bush Field, others rerouted to Aiken or Columbia, while others stayed in a holding pattern about 150 miles away, officials said.