With 48.7 million Americans expected to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday season, many American airlines and airports across the country are bracing themselves for the string of delays to come. With the highest rate of holiday travelers in years, airports are also expecting the worst delays.
Throughout the United States, security and staff of airports are getting ready to face the heavy traffic of passengers flying and out of airports from November 19 to November 29. Of these dates, Forbes has predicted the lowest amount of traffic on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, and the highest amount of traffic to be experienced on November 22.
These statistics have been based on previous travel trends that have also composed the heavy traffic experienced at airports during the holiday season. The heavy traffic has been predicted to cause delays in a vast majority of US domestic flights.
In a report by the LA Times, the most delay-prone airports have been named. Among many others, airports such as Chicago's O'Hare, New Jersey's Newark Liberty and San Fransisco International are predicted to have the highest rate of delayed flights, based on statistics created over the past three years.
Allegiant Airlines from Las Vegas has been deemed to be the worst airline during the Thanksgiving week, with a 40% chance of delay in all departures. Other airlines such as Frontier and South West have also been considered high-delay airlines.
Erratic November weather may also be held accountable for the potential flight delays due to a historical record of storms, hurricanes, and gale winds coming from different states. In the event of weather-related issues, airports in states such as New York and Texas are expected to experience delays as well.
A complete list of the forty-five busiest airports in the United States during the holiday week has been provided by the website Reward Expert. Also included is a traffic prediction based on times and dates.