If your Thanksgiving holiday travel plans call for you to board a plane to grandma’s house in the next few days, know that you will have lots and lots of company. The Air Transport Association (ATA) is estimating that roughly 27 million passengers will take to the skies beginning tomorrow and continuing for the next 12 days. The ATA is also anticipating an average of more than 2.5 million passengers a day on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the Sunday and Monday after the holiday.
So, what does that mean for you? To begin with, you can expect longer-than-usual lines at security checkpoints and at check-in counters. Next, prepare to be met with frustration if you plan to park your car at the airport. City leaders in major metropolitan areas are urging travelers to consider taking public transportation to the airport, since many parking lots will fill up quickly. Also, you can all but forget about making last minute changes to your itinerary without facing exorbitant fees.
The estimates on the record number of passengers are not being lost on carriers. Many are trying to minimize holiday travel hassles, by adding seasonal workers (some major airlines have hired as many as 500 seasonal workers) to help the masses make their way through airports. In addition, the country’s busiest airports are preparing for weather delays by keeping additional food and water on hand so they can aid planes that get stuck on tarmacs for extended periods.
One carrier in particular, Northwest Airlines, is being credited for exceeding expectations in making adjustments to ease the holiday madness. Last week, the Minneapolis-based company said it will delay the last two banks of daily flights at its largest hubs — Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul — during peak holiday travel days to help reduce missed connections.
To further aid American air travelers over the busy holiday travel season President Bush announced today that the Pentagon will allow commercial airliners to use two air corridors off the eastern seaboard that are normally restricted to military flights. By doing so the government creates a sort of “express lane” for commercial airliners that will be flying routes from Florida to Maine from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to the following Sunday – the busiest days of Thanksgiving travel.
Will you be one of the 27 million air travelers taking to the skies this Thanksgiving?
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