Traveling for Thanksgiving? Be prepared to deal with crowds, traffic and delays.
Tuesday and Wednesday mark the busiest days of the year for air travel, and rain could possibly impact flights, so be sure to check with your airline before heading to the airport. While many have dealt with delays and cancellations in recent weeks due to the government shutdown that ended Nov. 12, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that the Federal Aviation Administration will be prepared for the travel crush.
“We anticipate solid staffing in our towers; that’s different than what we had during the shutdown,” said Duffy.
A week after lifting the unprecedented flight restrictions it placed on commercial airlines during the shutdown, the FAA is preparing for its busiest Thanksgiving in 15 years, with more than 360,000 flights scheduled between Monday and next Tuesday. That’s more than 17.8 million people who will be screened at airports, according to the Transportation Security Administration; Over the course of the long holiday weekend, 31 million are expected to fly.
Duffy said during a press conference Monday at Newark Liberty International Airport that air traffic controller staffing levels have stabilized in time for what he says will be the busiest Thanksgiving on record for travel, while the head of the FAA reassured passengers that they can “fly with confidence” this week.
One thing they can’t control, but can prepare for: the weather. Forecasters said rain was expected in the Pacific Northwest and in much of the eastern U.S. Airports in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C. could be impacted Tuesday.
On Monday, skies were clear and there were very few cancellations and just a couple dozen delays overall, according to FlightAware.
For those not taking to the skies, AAA projects 1.3 million more travelers will be on the roads than in 2024, pushing the total number of people traveling by car to at least 73 million, which would be a record. The busiest times are anticipated to be Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday afternoons.
Tuesday and Wednesday are gridlock alert days for New York City, and there are some times in particular you’ll to avoid being on the road across the five boroughs. According to AAA, the busiest hours on MTA bridges and tunnels in 2024 were:
Tuesday: 3 p.m.-4 p.m. (60,789 vehicles)
Wednesday: 3 p.m.-4 p.m. (60,780 vehicles)
Wednesday: 2 p.m.-3 p.m. (60,701 vehicles)
Newer traffic patterns show that Tuesday is actually the busier day on the roads overall compared to Wednesday, which traditionally was the busiest day. According to an analysis by Google Maps:
Traffic on Wednesday is expected to be 14% heavier than usual between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., with peak traffic from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
On Thanksgiving Day, the roads will be busiest between noon and 3 p.m.
When it’s time to head home, avoid driving from 12 to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, when traffic is heaviest.