Earlier this month, AAA predicted that 2022 would rank as the third-busiest Thanksgiving travel weekend in over two decades. Since the travel club began tracking in 2000, they anticipated that 54.6 million Americans would hit the road, traveling at least 50 miles from home to gather with loved ones. Air travel, in particular, was expected to rise significantly—and indeed, the travel surge for this year’s Thanksgiving didn’t fall short of expectations. According to final counts by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), 10,665,281 passengers flew between Wednesday, November 23, and Sunday, November 27.
Compared to previous years, this number reflects a 5.2 percent increase over last year, though it still falls slightly short of the 11,714,728 passengers counted by TSA in 2019. For context, 2005 and 2019 marked the busiest Thanksgiving travel years according to AAA.
It’s clear that many of us are glad to be flying in large numbers again, though no busy holiday travel period is complete without some hiccups. While most travelers enjoyed smooth journeys on their way to see family and friends, the return trip proved more troublesome. If you traveled on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, we hope you packed some leftovers to help endure the crowded airports, long waits, and the 6,407 flight delays and 176 cancellations reported by FlightAware.
Many of these disruptions were due to severe weather, with storms striking different parts of the country, including snow in the Pacific Northwest, high winds in the Northwest, and thunderstorms sweeping up from the Southwest through the South. Unfortunately for travelers, such severe weather is considered an “uncontrollable delay,” meaning airlines aren’t required to compensate passengers as they would in “controllable” situations.
Overall, we’ve experienced worse during holiday travel periods—and even during non-holiday travel—so let’s hope that travel numbers remain high and inconveniences stay minimal as we look forward to our December travel plans.
