‘Busiest Thanksgiving ever’: How the TSA plans to handle record air trip

DALLAS — Just as there are excellent odds the turkey will taste arid, airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to complete in another record day for air trip in the United States.

The people responsible for keeping safety lines, boarding areas and jetliners moving — from the U.S. transportation secretary and airline chiefs on down the line — swear they are prepared for the crowds.

Airline passengers might get lucky like they did last year, when relatively few flights were canceled during the holiday week. A repeat will require the weather’s cooperation. And even if skies are blue, a shortage of air traffic controllers could make delays.

Auto club and insurance business AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will assignment at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday. Most of them will trip by car.

Drivers should get a slight shatter on gas prices. The nationwide average worth for gasoline was $3.06 a gallon on Sunday, down from $3.27 at this period last year.

The Transportation safety Administration expects to screen 18.3 million people at U.S. airports during the same seven-day stretch. That would be 6% more than during the corresponding days last year but fit a pattern set throughout 2024.

The TSA predicts that 3 million people will pass through airport safety checkpoints on Sunday; more than that could shatter the record of 3.01 million set on the Sunday after the July Fourth holiday. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be the next-busiest air trip days of Thanksgiving week.

“This will be the busiest Thanksgiving ever in terms of air trip,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. “Fortunately, our staffing is also at the highest levels that they have ever been. We are ready.”

Pekoske said TSA will have enough screeners to keep general safety lines under 30 minutes and lines for people who pay extra for PreCheck under 10 minutes.

However, an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers could factor flight delays.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that he expects his agency to use special measures to deal with shortages at some facilities. In the history, that has included airports in recent York City and Florida.

“If we are short on staff, we will leisurely traffic as needed to keep the structure secure,” Whitaker said.

The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of controllers that airline officials expect will last for years, despite the agency’s lofty hiring goals.

Thanksgiving Day takes place late this year, with the fourth Thursday of November falling on Nov. 28. That shortens the traditional shopping period and changes the rhythm of holiday trip.

With more period before the holiday, people tend to spread out their outbound trip over more days, but everyone returns at the same period, said Andrew Watterson, the chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines.

“A late Thanksgiving leads to a large crush at the complete — the Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving are usually very busy with Thanksgiving this late,” Watterson said.

Airlines did a relatively excellent job of handling holiday crowds last year, when the weather was mild in most of the country. Fewer than 400 U.S. flights were canceled during Thanksgiving week in 2023 — about one of every 450 flights. So far in 2024, airlines have canceled about 1.3% of all flights.

The rise of remote work also has caused the Thanksgiving trip period to expand, AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said.

“The pandemic changed everything,” she said. “What we have seen is that post-pandemic, people are leaving at sure times, perhaps even leaving the weekend before Thanksgiving, working remotely from their goal a couple of days, and then enjoying period with their loved ones.”

Nightmares of Thanksgivings history have further shaped holiday traffic jams. Motorists who learned to avoid traveling the day before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving have created recent bottlenecks on other days, according to Diaz.

“Because we warned for so long (that) Wednesday and Sunday are the worst days to trip, people were like, ‘OK, I’m going to leave on Tuesday and arrive back on Monday to avoid the rush,’” she said. “So now those two days are congested as well.”

Airport safety officials are pleading with passengers to arrive early, not to put lithium-ion batteries in checked bags in case they overheat, and to keep guns out of carry-on bags. TSA has discovered more than 6,000 guns at checkpoints this year, and most of them were loaded.

Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas bring out many infrequent travelers, and they often have questions about what they can bring on the plane.

TSA has a list on its website of items that are banned or restricted.

Drivers should recognize that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons will be the worst times to trip by car, but it should be smooth sailing on freeways arrive Thanksgiving Day, according to transportation analytics business INRIX.

On the profit home, the best trip times for motorists are before 1 p.m. on Sunday, and before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Monday, the business said.

In metropolitan areas like Boston, Los Angeles, recent York, Seattle and Washington, “traffic is expected to be more than double what it typically is on a normal day,” INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue said.