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

Just as sure as the turkey will taste dry, airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to end in another record day for air travel in the United States. The people responsible for keeping security 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 create delays. U.S. flights appeared to running relatively normally on Monday, with fewer than 40 canceled but more than 1,600 delayed by midday on the East Coast, according to FlightAware. Auto club and insurance company AAA predicts that nearly 80m Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday. Most of them will travel by car. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 18.3m 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.<br/>