Record Thanksgiving travel rush off to a smooth start despite snowy forecast
The late influx of holiday travelers increased on Wednesday. About 2.7 million people are expected to board flights and millions more plan to drive or train for Thanksgiving celebrations.
Airline officials say they are confident they can avoid the kind of massive disruptions that have marred recent holiday seasons, such as the meltdown at Southwest Airlines last Christmas. That turned out to be the case on Wednesday evening.
U.S. airports reported 59 flight cancellations to, from or within the U.S. and 2,750 flight delays on Wednesday, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. FlightAware said just under 300 cancellations and 4,000 delays per day is considered very good.
Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York said it was screening all vehicles arriving at the airport and conducting additional security checks after a car crashed and exploded at a nearby checkpoint on the US-Canada border. But the airport said it remained open and fully operational. All four border crossings in the area were closed, the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission said.
Snow showers may disrupt traffic in other parts of the country. The National Weather Service forecast an accumulation of snow in northern New England on Wednesday, including up to 8 inches of snowfall in northern Maine. Snow was also expected to fall in the northern Rocky Mountains on Thanksgiving Day, bringing up to a foot of snow to parts of Wyoming by Friday.
Security lines at airports can be long. Delta Air Lines is telling passengers to arrive at the airport at least two hours before their flight if traveling within the United States, three hours earlier if flying abroad – and perhaps earlier on Sundays and Mondays.
Jordan Sessions followed that advice and arrived at the airport early Wednesday for a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Oakland, California. But Portland’s airport wasn’t busy and the check-in lines were short, meaning he had to wait a while for his flight.
That wasn’t the case for Brittany Dandridge, who discovered lines out the door when she arrived for her flight from Dallas to Oakland.
“Luckily I was traveling with my dog and was able to skip the line,” she said.
The Transportation Security Administration said it had screened more than 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday and expected another 2.7 million to pass through airport security on Wednesday. On Sunday, the company expects to screen 2.9 million passengers, which would surpass a previous record set on June 30.
All morning, the lines ebbed and flowed at New York’s Moynihan Train Hall. Some travelers said they chose to travel by train for convenience or lower prices. Others said they wanted to avoid chaos at the airport.
Matthew Hudnall and Abby Greenbaum traveled from Atlanta to New York to Boston to visit family with their 5-year-old daughter. By the time they reach Boston, they will have taken a total of nine trains, they said.
“I think we thought it would be calmer and less stressful than flying. So to the extent that’s true,” Greenbaum said.
Amtrak said it expected 750,000 passengers between Nov. 19 and 26. The company said travelers could expect some boarding delays this weekend due to high passenger volume.
The holidays will also test the Federal Aviation Administration, which is facing a shortage of air traffic controllers at key facilities that has reduced the number of flights to the New York City region this summer and fall.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a news conference Monday that the administration has been preparing for holiday travel by hiring more air traffic controllers, opening new air routes along the East Coast and providing subsidies to airports for snow plows and de-icing equipment.
Airlines have also added tens of thousands of workers in recent years, and Southwest says it has bought more winter equipment to keep planes moving even in subzero temperatures.
AAA predicts that 55.4 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home between Wednesday and Sunday, the third-highest forecast ever by the auto club. AAA says most of them – 49.1 million – will drive.
Drivers receive a discount on gasoline prices compared to last year. AAA says the national average for gas fell to $3.28 per gallon on Wednesday, down from $3.63 a year ago.
Guy Maughan was thinking about charging stations — not gas prices — as he set off in his Tesla last week on a 13-day Thanksgiving road trip that will take him from his home near Seattle to his brother’s home in Los Angeles and then to his parents in Phoenix.
Maughan said he and his traveling companion – a seven-month-old golden doodle named Nala – expect to spend only about $150 to charge the car along the 3,000-mile route.
“I love driving, I love road trips, and the car does all the hard work,” says Maughan, a real estate agent. “I just enter the destinations and then I know where we are going to stop. I’m really enjoying it.”
Air travelers will also enjoy lower prices. According to government figures, airfares in October were 13% lower than last year, and fares around Thanksgiving were about 14% lower than a year ago, according to the travel site Hopper.
Still, high costs for rent, food, health care and other expenses weighed on people’s travel plans.
Jason McQueary, a 25-year-old social worker and graduate student, said rent and other essentials took up most of his paycheck and he was grateful for his credit card points, which lowered the cost of his round-trip flight from Denver to Chicago. $450 to $150.
“I was like, ‘Man, I’m glad I only come home once a year,’” said McQueary, who waited to be picked up Tuesday after arriving at Chicago O’Hare International Airport to spend Thanksgiving with family to spend in his hometown of Byron, Illinois.
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Associated Press writer Claire Savage and photographer Erin Hooley in Chicago, Associated Press videojournalist Terry Chea in Oakland, California, and Associated Press writer Joseph Frederick in New York contributed to this report.