US travel hit by pandemic ahead of Thanksgiving holiday

According to the Transportation Security Administration, for six consecutive days, starting Tuesday, daily airport commuters exceeded two million people, a rate not seen before the pandemic. Sunday, when an estimated 2.4 million people are expected to stream through airport security, TSA officials have said it will be the busiest day ever.

Thanksgiving is always one of the busiest travel periods of the year, marked by long lines and large crowds at airports. There are additional tensions this year. Airlines have had a rocky re-emergence from the pandemic, and some carriers have been particularly vulnerable to bad weather or disturbances, which have led to the cancellation of their operations for days, resulting in the cancellation of thousands of flights. Huh.

There have been some major disruptions so far this week. According to flight-tracking site, FlightAware, less than 1% of US domestic flights were canceled on Monday and Tuesday. As of Wednesday night, airlines had canceled about 100 US flights that day.

“I was very nervous about traveling, especially the Wednesday before Thanksgiving,” said Chloe Corcoran, who flew from Los Angeles to visit her family in Rochester, NY. Things have turned out well.”

While there are still several days of holiday travel to go, airlines are working a few things in their favor. For one, the weather has been mostly calm, as early storm predictions failed. Bob Larson, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said local weather disturbances could cause travel delays in some parts of the country, but more severe weather is not in the forecast.

Carriers are also taking steps to ramp up operations ahead of the holiday. Southwest Airlines Company, Spirit Airlines Inc. And Allegiant Travel Company has scaled back its flight plans in the final months of the year to better align schedules with staffing and other constraints.

Airlines including Southwest, JetBlue Airways Corp and American Airlines Group Inc. are also offering incentives such as cash bonuses and extra pay for employees who work holidays. American flight attendants who have perfect attendance during the vacation period will be queuing for triple pay.

American recently learned several lessons when high winds slowed traffic at its Dallas-Fort Worth hub, ripple through its operations for days and canceled more than 2,000 flights, chief executive Doug Parker said.

“It showed us what can happen if a really disruptive situation happens at one of our airports. And we can’t let that happen over the holidays,” Mr. Parker told the flight attendant at the town hall last week. Mr Parker said the airline is prepared to handle anything that may arise, and there are already indications that its incentive program is to pay for flight-attendant absenteeism with reduced rates, instead of having to go in for it. after.

To be sure, there are still some headaches. Unlike last year, when warnings from US health officials kept people at home, travelers are once again facing a holiday crush. Airports have warned that parking lots are filling up, and the TSA has advised people to arrive early as long lines make a comeback.

Large crowds have raised fears of another wave of incidents disrupting passengers, causing flights to be delayed or diverted – a problem the industry has been grappling with throughout the year. The frequency of such incidents has fallen since the beginning of this year, but the Federal Aviation Administration has launched more than 1,000 investigations in 2021 compared to 2019, when there were just 150 such investigations.

Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote in a memo Wednesday to US lawyers on planes endangering the safety of passengers and crew, citing concerns about an increase in such treatment to millions of people traveling on holidays. To give priority to the prosecution of offences. The FAA said earlier this month that it had referred about three dozen incidents to the FBI for investigation.

Ashley Brown was concerned about crowds the day before Thanksgiving, so she opted to depart from Hollywood Burbank Airport, which is smaller and easier to navigate than LAX. Still, when she arrived at the airport on Wednesday morning, traffic was already jammed. The security line stretched across the door and sidewalk.

“I literally stood in line and prayed,” she said. After waiting for about an hour, Ms Brown said she arrived at her gate minutes before the flight started.