Planning on flying to visit friends or family this Thanksgiving? You’ll have plenty of company, airlines say, but there will be enough seats for everyone.
Airlines for America, a trade group that represents most the large carriers, says it’s anticipating a 2.5% uptick in flyers over the holiday weekend: upwards of 27 million people will fly with U.S. airlines between Nov. 18 and Nov. 29. That will add about 55,000 passengers on average to the 2.27 million passengers expected to fly each day.
More people are flying because fares have dropped, so to accommodate all those folks airlines, have added more flights on larger planes, for an average of 74,000 seats available each day of the holiday travel period.
“The airline industry remains highly competitive, which directly benefits consumers as airfares continue to fall, providing even more opportunities for people to travel for Thanksgiving and throughout the year,” said John Heimlich, chief economist for the group. “Travelers should rest assured that while more people will be flying, there will be more than an adequate number of seats available.”
If you haven’t bought your ticket yet and want to avoid the busiest times, fly on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, and stay away from Sunday, Nov. 27; Monday, Nov. 28; and Wednesday, Nov. 23.
(h/t USAToday)
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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