Thanksgiving Travel Latest: Airport strike, staff shortages and weather could impact holiday travel

Airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to end with another record day for air travel in the United States.

AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday, most of them by car. However, travelers could be impacted by ongoing weather challenges and those flying to their destinations could be grounded by delays brought on by airline staffing shortages and an airport service workers strike.

Here's the latest:

2.2 billion packages are expected to ship between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve

U.S. airlines are preparing for a Thanksgiving holiday rush, and so are the U.S. Postal Service, United Parcel Service and FedEx.

Shipping companies will deliver about 2.2 billion packages to homes and businesses across the U.S. from Thanksgiving to Dec. 31, said Satish Jindel, a shipping and logistics expert and president of ShipMatrix.

That's down from 2.3 billion packages last year. Because the shopping period is a week shorter than in 2023, consumers are shopping further ahead of Black Friday and more purchases are taking place in physical stores, he said.

Does your airport offer therapy dogs?

Looking to de-stress while waiting for your flight? Many airports have a fleet of therapy dogs — designated fidos and puppers that are eager to receive pets and snuggles from weary travelers.

Rules and schedules vary from airport to airport, but the group AirportTherapyDogs uses online crowdsourcing to share the locations of therapy dogs across its various social media accounts.

Today, Gracie, a toy Australian shepherd, and Budge, an English bulldog, wandered the concourses at Denver International Airport, and an American Staffordshire Terrier named Hugo greeted travelers at Punta Gorda Airport in Florida.

Some airports even feature other therapy pals.

What the striking airport workers are saying

''We cannot live on the wages that we are being paid,'' ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said at a rally earlier Monday. ''I can honestly say it's hard every single day with my children, working a full-time job but having to look my kids in the eyes and sit there and say, ‘I don't know if we're going to have a home today.'''

Timothy Lowe II, a wheelchair attendant, said he has to figure out where to spend the night because he doesn't make enough for a deposit on a home.

''We just want to be able to have everything that's a necessity paid for by the job that hired us to do a great job so they can make billions,'' he said.

ABM said it is ''committed to addressing concerns swiftly'' and that there are avenues for employees to communicate issues, including a national hotline and a ''general open door policy for managers at our worksite.''

Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. They described living paycheck to paycheck while performing jobs that keep planes running on schedule.

Most of them earn $12.50 to $19 an hour, union officials said. Rev. Glencie Rhedrick of Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice said those workers should make $22 to $25 an hour.

The strike is expected to last 24 hours. Several hundred workers participated in the work stoppage.

US flights are running normally

Forty-four fights have been canceled today and nearly 1,900 were delayed by midday on the East Coast, according to FlightAware.

While that might sound like a lot of delays, they might not be so bad compared to last Friday when the airport suffered 671 delays and 69 cancellations.

Cutting in line? American Airlines' new boarding tech might stop you now at over 100 airports

In an apparent effort to reduce the headaches caused by airport line cutting, American Airlines has rolled out boarding technology that alerts gate agents with an audible sound if a passenger tries to scan a ticket ahead of their assigned group.

This new software won't accept a boarding pass before the group it's assigned to is called, so customers who get to the gate prematurely will be asked to go back and wait their turn.

As of Wednesday, the airline announced, the technology is now being used in more than 100 U.S. airports that American flies out of. The official expansion arrives after successful tests in three of these locations — Albuquerque International Sunport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Tucson International Airport.

Tips to make holiday travel a bit easier

Travel can be stressful in the best of times. Now add in the high-level anxiety that seems to be baked into every holiday season and it's clear travelers could use some help calming frazzled nerves.

Here are a few ways to make your holiday journey a little less stressful:

1. Make a checklist of what you need to do and what you need to bring

2. Carry your comfort with you — think noise-canceling headphones, cozy clothes, snacks and extra medication

4. Keep up to date on delays, gate changes and cancellations with your airline's app

▶ Read more tips about staying grounded during holiday travel

The timing of this year's holiday shapes travel patterns

Thanksgiving Day takes place late this year, with the fourth Thursday of November falling on Nov. 28. That shortens the traditional shopping season and changes the rhythm of holiday travel.

With more time before the holiday, people tend to spread out their outbound travel over more days, but everyone returns at the same time, said Andrew Watterson, the chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines.

Airlines did a relatively good job of handling holiday crowds last year, when the weather was mild in most of the country. Fewer than 400 U.S. flights were canceled during Thanksgiving week in 2023 — about one out of every 450 flights. So far in 2024, airlines have canceled about 1.3% of all flights.

Advice for drivers

Drivers should know that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons will be the worst times to travel by car, but it should be smooth sailing on freeways come Thanksgiving Day, according to transportation analytics company INRIX.

On the return home, the best travel times for motorists are before 1 p.m. on Sunday, and before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Monday, the company said.

In metropolitan areas like Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, ''traffic is expected to be more than double what it typically is on a normal day,'' INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue said.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that he expects his agency to use special measures at some facilities to deal with an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers.

In the past, those facilities have included airports in New York City and Florida.

''If we are short on staff, we will slow traffic as needed to keep the system safe,'' Whitaker said.

The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of controllers that airline officials expect will last for years, despite the agency's lofty hiring goals.

Thanksgiving travel, b

5. Auto club and insurance company AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday. Most of them will travel by car.

6. Drivers should get a slight break on gas prices. The nationwide average price for gasoline was $3.06 a gallon on Sunday, down from $3.27 at this time last year.

7. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 18.3 million people at U.S. airports during the same seven-day stretch. That would be 6% more than during the corresponding days last year but fit a pattern set throughout 2024.

8. The TSA predicts that 3 million people will pass through airport security checkpoints on Sunday; more than that could break the record of 3.01 million set on the Sunday after the July Fourth holiday. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be the next busiest air travel days of Thanksgiving week.

▶ Read more about Thanksgiving travel across the U.S.

Workers who clean airplanes, remove trash and help with wheelchairs at Charlotte's airport, one of the nation's busiest, went on strike Monday to demand higher wages.

The Service Employees International Union announced the strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand ''an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.'' The strike was expected to last 24 hours, said union spokesperson Sean Keady.

Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. The two companies contract with American, one of the world's biggest carriers, to provide services such as cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.

▶ Read more about the Charlotte airport workers' strike

Northeast should get needed precipitation

A storm last week brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions after an exceptionally dry fall.

Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with lesser accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Around 35,000 customers in 10 counties were still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago.

In the Catskills region of New York, nearly 10,000 people remained without power Sunday morning, two days after a storm dumped heavy snow on parts of the region.

Precipitation in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state's worst drought in at least two decades and boosted ski resorts as they prepare to open in the weeks ahead.

▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts

Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying '' bomb cyclone '' hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Hundreds of thousands lost electricity in Washington state before powerful gusts and record rains moved into Northern California.

Forecasters said the risk of flooding and mudslides remained as the region will get more rain starting Sunday. But the latest storm won't be as intense as last week's atmospheric river, a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land.

''However, there's still threats, smaller threats, and not as significant in terms of magnitude, that are still going to exist across the West Coast for the next two or three days,'' weather service forecaster Rich Otto said.

As the rain moves east throughout the week, Otto said, there's a potential for heavy snowfall at higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, as well as portions of Utah and Colorado.

California's Mammoth Mountain, which received 2 feet (0.6 meters) of fresh snow in the recent storm, could get another 4 feet (1.2 meters) before the newest system clears out Wednesday, the resort said.

Another round of wintry weather could complicate travel leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, according to forecasts across the U.S., while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages.

In California, where two people were found dead in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rain while grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm.

Here's a look at some of the regional forecasts:

9. Sierra Nevada: The National Weather Service office issued a winter storm warning through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph (88 kph). Total snowfall of roughly 4 feet (1.2 meters) was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday.

10. Midwest and Great Lakes: The Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday and the East Coast will be the most impacted on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, forecasters said.