I think everyone learned a lesson or two from Thanksgiving travel this year. While almost every 'expert' on TV or on blogs or writing in the papers expected less travel overall this year (due to recession), that wasn't what turned out to be remarkable. They still predicted long lines on Wed. the 23rd. So yes, airports all over the country reported FEW LINES and relatively no delays.
Granted, the weather was pretty benign across the US so there were no horrendous 'stuck on the tarmac' stories this year, meaning back ups in the whole system. Everything flowed pretty smoothly and here is why - no one was flying the day before Thanksgiving! We already know few travel on the holiday itself but the Wed. before Turkey Day is almost always the busiest day of the year at the airport. Not this year and probably not next year either. The reason?
People not working (record numbers as if you didn't know) did not have to work for 2-3 days of Thanksgiving week and rush out on Tues or Wed. Add to them the number of forced vacations placed upon people (I golfed with 2 of them on the Tuesday - forced furloughs by their companies they said) and lo and behold, more people spread out their travel over the whole week than ever before. One pundit on the news reported that here in the S.F. Bay Area, it was mobbed on the FRIDAY before Thanksgiving and live shots on Wed evening showed almost NO LINES at all. People reported checking in HOURS ahead of schedule and were sitting on their hands for HOURS. That meant fewer bumped passengers and happier campers all around.
I suspect this will happen both at Christmas and next year as well. With Christmas on a Friday, I suspect many people (especially executives) will simply take the whole week off, if not fly on the Monday or Tuesday. My guess would be that Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th will have busier airports than Thursday the 24th. Next year, expect a repeat, since the economy will probably not be materially better and Christmas will fall on Saturday.
This is great news for people excited about visiting relatives for the holidays. Not such great news for those that don't get along with the in-laws so well.
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