Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said this Thanksgiving travel season is expected to be one of the busiest in U.S. history, but travelers can anticipate fewer flight cancellations than they’ve seen in recent years.
Speaking alongside Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker at a Monday news conference, Buttigieg said, “We are seeing more people flying than ever with fewer cancellations.”
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The National Airspace System is reporting the lowest cancellation rates in five years. Flight cancellations are down to 1.3% so far in 2023, compared to 2.3% in 2022, according to preliminary data from the Aviation System Performance Metrics.
Airlines have made some improvements from post-pandemic complications that were seen in Southwest’s 2022 holiday travel disaster. Canceled and delayed flights affected an estimated 2 million passengers, and the company lost around $220 million in the final three months of last year.
The FAA is investigating multiple domestic airlines for unrealistic scheduling of flights, including Southwest’s December meltdown.
“In the Southwest case, there was a huge volume of passengers impacted, which means there’s been a huge volume of work for the team to go through,” Buttigieg said. “But I can tell you that it’s underway and that we intend to send a continued signal that airlines need to only schedule the flights that they can serve.”
“I want to remind the industry that unrealistic scheduling is prohibited under the law,” Buttigieg added.
Whitaker said skies will remain extremely busy like last year, adding, “We will be working around the clock to make sure passengers get to their destination safely.”
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In an earlier projection, the Transportation Security Administration said the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after are the busiest travel days. TSA is expecting to screen 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday, 2.7 million passengers on Wednesday, and 2.9 million passengers on Sunday, the busiest travel day.
“We expect this holiday season to be our busiest ever. In 2023, we have already seen seven of the top 10 busiest travel days in TSA’s history,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a press release last week. “We are ready for the anticipated volumes and are working closely with our airline and airport partners to make sure we are prepared for this busy holiday travel season.”
