Thanksgiving trip Latest: Airport strike, staff shortages and weather could impact holiday trip

Airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to complete with another record day for air trip in the United States.

AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will enterprise at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday, most of them by car. However, travelers could be impacted by ongoing weather challenges and those flying to their destinations could be grounded by delays brought on by airline staffing shortages and an airport service workers strike.

Here’s the latest:

U.S. airlines are preparing for a Thanksgiving holiday rush, and so are the U.S. Postal Service, United Parcel Service and FedEx.

Shipping companies will deliver about 2.2 billion packages to homes and businesses across the U.S. from Thanksgiving to Dec. 31, said Satish Jindel, a shipping and logistics specialist and president of ShipMatrix.

That’s down from 2.3 billion packages last year. Because the shopping period is a week shorter than in 2023, consumers are shopping further ahead of Black Friday and more purchases are taking place in physical stores, he said.

The number of holiday package shipments grew 27% in 2020 and by more than 3% the following year during the pandemic. The numbers have been falling since then, with a projected decline of about 6% this holiday period.

Looking to de-stress while waiting for your flight? Many airports have a fleet of therapy dogs — designated fidos and puppers that are eager to receive pets and snuggles from weary travelers.

Rules and schedules vary from airport to airport, but the throng AirportTherapyDogs uses online crowdsourcing to distribute the locations of therapy dogs across its various social media accounts.

Today, Gracie, a toy Australian shepherd, and Budge, an English bulldog, wandered the concourses at Denver International Airport, and an American Staffordshire Terrier named Hugo greeted travelers at Punta Gorda Airport in Florida.

Some airports even characteristic other therapy pals.

San Francisco International Airport’s fleet of animals includes a Flemish Giant rabbit and a hypoallergenic pig.

“We cannot live on the wages that we are being paid,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said at a rally earlier Monday. “I can honestly declare it’s challenging every single day with my children, working a packed-period job but having to look my kids in the eyes and sit there and declare, ‘I don’t recognize if we’re going to have a home today.’”

Timothy Lowe II, a wheelchair attendant, said he has to figure out where to spend the night because he doesn’t make enough for a financing on a home.

“We just desire to be able to have everything that’s a necessity paid for by the job that hired us to do a great job so they can make billions,” he said.

ABM said it is “committed to addressing concerns swiftly” and that there are avenues for employees to communicate issues, including a national hotline and a “general open door policy for managers at our worksite.”

Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. They described living paycheck to paycheck while performing jobs that keep planes running on schedule.

Most of them earn $12.50 to $19 an hour, union officials said. Rev. Glencie Rhedrick of Charlotte Clergy Coalition for fairness said those workers should make $22 to $25 an hour.

The strike is expected to last 24 hours. Several hundred workers participated in the work stoppage.

Forty-four fights have been canceled today and nearly 1,900 were delayed by midday on the East Coast, according to FlightAware.

According to the organization’s cheekily named MiseryMap, San Francisco International Airport is having the most hiccups correct now, with 53 delays and three cancellations between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST.

While that might sound like a lot of delays, they might not be so impoverished compared to last Friday when the airport suffered 671 delays and 69 cancellations.

In an apparent attempt to reduce the headaches caused by airport line cutting, American Airlines has rolled out boarding technology that alerts gate agents with an audible sound if a passenger tries to scan a ticket ahead of their assigned throng.

This recent software won’t receive a boarding pass before the throng it’s assigned to is called, so customers who get to the gate prematurely will be asked to leave back and wait their turn.

As of Wednesday, the airline announced, the technology is now being used in more than 100 U.S. airports that American flies out of. The official expansion arrives after successful tests in three of these locations — Albuquerque International Sunport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Tucson International Airport.

▶ Read more about American Airlines’ recent boarding technology

trip can be demanding in the best of times. Now add in the high-level anxiety that seems to be baked into every holiday period and it’s obvious travelers could use some assist calming frazzled nerves.

Here are a few ways to make your holiday trip a little less demanding:

1. Make a checklist of what you require to do and what you require to bring

2. Carry your comfort with you — ponder noise-canceling headphones, cozy clothes, snacks and extra medication

3. remain hydrated

4. Keep up to date on delays, gate changes and cancellations with your airline’s app

▶ Read more tips about staying grounded during holiday trip

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,” Watterson said. “The Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving are usually very busy with Thanksgiving this late.”

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 out of every 450 flights. So far in 2024, airlines have canceled about 1.3% of all flights.

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.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that he expects his agency to use special measures at some facilities to deal with an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers.

In the history, those facilities have 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.

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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

▶ Read more about Thanksgiving trip across the U.S.

Workers who tidy airplanes, remove trash and assist with wheelchairs at Charlotte’s airport, one of the country’s busiest, went on strike Monday to demand higher wages.

The Service Employees International Union announced the strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an complete to poverty wages and regard on the job during the holiday trip period.” The strike was expected to last 24 hours, said union spokesperson Sean Keady.

Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. The two companies deal with American, one of the globe’s biggest carriers, to provide services such as cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.

▶ Read more about the Charlotte airport workers’ strike

Parts of the Midwest and East Coast can expect to view heavy rain into Thanksgiving, and there’s potential for snow in Northeastern states.

A storm last week brought rain to recent York and recent Jersey, where wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The precipitation was expected to assist ease drought conditions after an exceptionally arid fall.

Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with lesser accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Around 35,000 customers in 10 counties were still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago.

In the Catskills region of recent York, nearly 10,000 people remained without power Sunday morning, two days after a storm dumped heavy snow on parts of the region.

Precipitation in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades and boosted ski resorts as they prepare to open in the weeks ahead.

▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts

Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying “ bomb cyclone ” hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Hundreds of thousands lost electricity in Washington state before powerful gusts and record rains moved into Northern California.

Forecasters said the hazard of flooding and mudslides remained as the region will get more rain starting Sunday. But the latest storm won’t be as intense as last week’s atmospheric river, a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land.

“However, there’s still threats, smaller threats, and not as significant in terms of magnitude, that are still going to exist across the West Coast for the next two or three days,” weather service forecaster wealthy Otto said.

As the rain moves east throughout the week, Otto said, there’s a potential for heavy snowfall at higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, as well as portions of Utah and Colorado.

California’s Mammoth Mountain, which received 2 feet (0.6 meters) of fresh snow in the recent storm, could get another 4 feet (1.2 meters) before the newest structure clears out Wednesday, the resort said.

Another round of wintry weather could complicate trip leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, according to forecasts across the U.S., while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages.

In California, where two people were found dead in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rain while grappling with flooding and tiny landslides from a previous storm.

Here’s a look at some of the regional forecasts:

9. Sierra Nevada: The National Weather Service office issued a winter storm warning through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph (88 kph). Total snowfall of roughly 4 feet (1.2 meters) was projection, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday.

10. Midwest and Great Lakes: The Midwest and Great Lakes regions will view rain and snow Monday and the East Coast will be the most impacted on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, forecasters said.

11. East Coast: A low pressure structure is projection to bring rain to the Southeast early Thursday before heading to the Northeast. Areas from Boston to recent York could view rain and breezy conditions, with snowfall feasible in parts of northern recent Hampshire, northern Maine and the Adirondacks. If the structure tracks further inland, there could be less snow and more rain in the mountains, forecasters said.

▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts