With Thanksgiving approaching and travelers jetting across the nation to be reunited with loved ones, United Airlines is adding flights and predicting a very busy travel period.
United Airlines Expects Busy Thanksgiving Travel Period
As we enter the busiest travel week of the year, United Airlines has shared some projections for the Thanksgiving travel period:
- Between November 18-3oth, United predicts it will transport 5.5 million travelers
- That is roughly equivalent to 2019 travel numbers and 12% higher than 2021
- That is double the number of travelers as an average week in November
- During this period, United will fly an average of 3,700 flights per day
- This is about 90% of what United flew in 2019
- United is expecting Sunday, November 27th will be its busiest travel day since before the pandemic with more than 460,000 people expected (including me…)
- 275 extra flights have been added on this day to help accommodate peak demand
- Denver (DEN), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Houston Intercontinental (IAH), and Newark (EWR) will be United’s busiest airports
- Each will have more than 350 departing flights per day on average during the Thanksgiving travel period
In case of irregular operations like bad weather or other unintended delays, United is ramping up its “Agent on Demand” service. Rather than wait in long lines to deal with an airport customer service counter, you can use the United app to connect directly with a live stateside agent to make travel adjustments.
> Read More:United Airlines Introduces “Agent On Demand” At Hub Airports
United has also deployed its “ConnectionSaver” tool across the network to hold flights for connecting passengers when doing so will not impact destination arrival time. This happened to me on Saturday at Chicago O’Hare…we waited 35 minutes for departing passengers and still landed in Los Angeles ahead of schedule. I know those passengers were very happy and I still got home earlier than planned.
> Read More:United ConnectionSaver Tool Has Serious Potential
Finally, United has added a “bag drop shortcut” at 18 airports where passengers who check in online or on the United app can skip the check-in line and drop off their bag at a separate, dedicated location in the lobby.
> Read More:United Airlines Introduces “Bag Drop Shortcut” To Skip Airport Lines
CONCLUSION
United is expecting the next seven days to be the busiest since before the pandemic. Flights have been added and technology is in place to make the travel process smoother. Now if only the weather cooperates…
image: United Airlines
I know these stats are coming from United, so I’m not blaming you I’ve seen them on other sites too, but it doesn’t make sense why they are saying the key hubs will have more than 350 flights per day. DEN, ORD, and IAH all already have well over 350 flights per day on a regular day. Maybe EWR is up to that for this period, but the other ones are always well above that number.
Agreed Jared, on a regular day, these hubs have way MORE than those departures. 350 a day is really a very very small operation IMO.
“UNITED AIRLINES FORECASTS BUSY THANKSGIVING TRAVEL WEEK” Outside of the 2 Covid years, has the week ever NOT been busy?
Where’s the news?
Exactly, @Patrick
Add in the doom and gloom brigade for the impending recession, and you’d think everyone is going to be battening down the hatches – no spending.
(Of course, one could be thinking the stimulus monies from 2+ years ago are paying for all these airfares…LMAO)
Totally not news…but good news!
This, and more in the next issue of “Duh” magazine!
Okay there was more to the post than that, but that’s what I got from the title, too.
It’s the same every year. Can’t you stay home and eat turkey? And please don’t bring the turkey through Security.
If the weather holds. I can’t imagine a Thanksgiving holiday without airline struggles. It’s just the nature of the industry. Packed planes, people in a rush etc…