HOLIDAY
How many people will fly this holiday season in the US?
Millions will take to the skies next week to make it to their holiday destination. A look at how airlines will accommodate the surge in passengers....
With Christmas just a little over a week away, a lot of people have already made reservations for their holiday trips. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on holiday travel over the past three years. Many families chose to have smaller gatherings, and fewer trips were planned.
Passengers return to the sky this holiday season
This year, the total number of passengers is expected to increase, and it could even return to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, 2.5 million individuals passed through a TSA checkpoint at airports in the US on the 22nd and 23rd of December. Last year, those numbers were closer to 2.3 and 2 million, respectively. The projections that passenger levels could return to their pre-pandemic levels this year are bolstered by the fact that more people have passed through TSA checkpoints this year than in 2019. During the 2019 holiday season, 9.5 million people traveled between the 21st and 24th of December. This year, these numbers could be reached this year, and are likely to surpass the 8.6 million passengers that traveled over the same days last year.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released its forecast for the period from the 21st to the 25th, expecting more than 267,000 flights to depart.
Flight cancellations remain an issue for flyers
The pandemic severely impacted the airline industry as travel was limited, and the threat of infection led many to cancel and postpone their trips. This causes many airlines to lay off workers and lighten other aspects of their company infrastructure to lower costs. However, these changes have led to an increase in cancellations that remain a threat to holiday plans this year.
“Flight cancellations are trending lower in 2023 than in previous years, but a canceled flight still has the potential to throw off your travel plans,” said the FAA. To assist passengers affected by cancellations, the agency has launched the interactive Customer Service Dashboard which was designed to “provide travelers with up-to-date airline customer service policies on controllable cancellations and delays to ensure customers can easily access information when problems arise.”