Overview
- AAA projects roughly 81.8–82 million people will travel for Thanksgiving, including about 73 million drivers and roughly 6 million domestic air travelers.
- The FAA expects more than 360,000 flights over the period, with Tuesday, Nov. 25 forecast as the busiest pre-holiday flight day and heavy volumes again on Sunday, Nov. 30.
- TSA plans to screen about 17.8 million passengers from Nov. 25 to Dec. 2, with more than 3 million travelers anticipated on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
- Forecasts call for heavy rain in Texas and the Southern Plains Monday, shifting to the Southeast Tuesday and bringing rain to the Northeast on Wednesday, with snow possible in parts of the Upper Midwest and colder air settling in late week.
- Airports and agencies are adding capacity and issuing timing guidance—MSP opened a Terminal 1 FLEX Lane, Atlanta expects more than 4 million passengers, and transit systems like NJ Transit are running extra service—while INRIX flags the Tuesday/Wednesday outbound and Sunday return as peak congestion windows.