Thanksgiving holiday travel surge brings higher fares and fewer flights

When Claudia Estudillo learned she had to be in Cancun on business close to Thanksgiving, she decided to bring her husband and daughter with her over the holiday. What she wasn’t prepared for is a cost of almost $300 more per person than she expected to pay. They’re making the trip anyway, joining the throngs at airports. “It’s very expensive now,” said the 55-year-old Dallas real estate agent, whose trip comes with an inconvenient, late-night connection in Mexico City. “If I didn’t need to go, I wouldn’t.” Planes and airports are expected to be bustling this Thanksgiving, traditionally one of the most traveled holidays of the year. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen more than 2.5m passengers the Sunday after Thanksgiving as well-wishers flock home. That’s slightly above screenings at airport checkpoints on the same day last year but still below a record 2.9m in 2019. AAA is forecasting more than 4.5m people will travel by air during the Nov. 23 to Nov. 27 period, a 7.9% increase from 2021 and just 1.4% fewer than in 2019. Airlines are vowing to meet the demand with minimal inconveniences, barring an Alberta Clipper barreling through the upper Midwest or a Nor’easter shutting down a swath of the Atlantic coast. They’ve staffed up and say they’ve learned lessons from last year’s meltdowns when overloaded systems caused a surge in cancellations and delays. “We’re ready,” American Airlines Group CEO Robert Isom said at an industry conference Wednesday. “I expect every day to be pretty full -- and manageable.”<br/>