Name: What to expect for Thanksgiving travel as flyers flock to airports
Uploaded: 2025-11-22T00:25:04.583Z
Duration: 2 min 5 s
Description: It may not be their intention, but millions of people left their homes, headed for a spot in the record books, for most Americans traveling for Thanksgiving. Kris Van Cleave reports the big holiday getaway is underway.

It may not be their intention, but millions of people left their homes, headed for a spot in the record books, for most Americans traveling for Thanksgiving. Kris Van Cleave reports the big holiday getaway is underway.

Miami

Millions of Americans are traveling for Thanksgiving, with airlines and airports preparing for what could be a record-breaking number of passengers. Security lines at major airports like Miami and Philadelphia have been busy but manageable, while some locations such as Dallas experienced flight cancellations due to severe weather. 

Airlines expect to serve around 31 million passengers between now and December 1st, though booking trends have been affected by recent government shutdowns and weather disruptions. The TSA projects that the Sunday after Thanksgiving will be the busiest travel day, potentially screening over three million people.

What to expect for Thanksgiving travel as flyers flock to airports

It may not be their intention but millions of people left their homes today headed for a spot in the record books for most Americans traveling for Thanksgiving. Chris Van Cleve reports the big holiday getaway is underway. In Miami the morning lines at airport security were moving at the pace of holiday travel as the airlines geared up for what could be the busiest day for flyers ahead of Thanksgiving. At Philadelphia's airport the remaining TSA checkpoints closed during the government shutdown due to staffing issues reopened ahead of the rush and in San Francisco Tim Merriweather just got in without much of a problem. You look around the airport and it's it's busy but not you know I didn't I haven't seen any frustrated people no lines. That's not been the case in Dallas. Thursday's severe storms meant hundreds of cancellations last night and this morning but there were fairer skies in Nashville where some flyers got a head start. The past few weeks has been um it's been pretty busy and hectic you know and so I decided to leave today to try to avoid just the you know the crowds. The nation's airlines are expecting a record 31 million passengers between now and Monday December 1st. That number could be in question after the travel chaos during the shutdown. Analytics company Cerium noted that booking slowed in November while the government was closed. I think a lot of air travelers have been taking a wait-and-see approach for Thanksgiving and writing out these recent cancellations and recent reductions in the hopes that their flight's going to be okay come Thanksgiving week. American Airlines alone has nearly 81,000 flights scheduled. Thanksgiving in general is always a big push for us. We spoke to American Chief Operating Officer David Seymour earlier this month. We're expecting Thanksgiving to be like any other Thanksgiving to be very full aircraft with people that have you know plans to go visit loved ones. The airlines expect today to be the busiest day leading up to Thanksgiving but the TSA says the busiest day overall will be the Sunday after Thanksgiving. They expect to screen more than three million people. That could be a new record.

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