This week, airports across the country will be packed with families and fliers who are traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday.
This comes as airline tickets near a five-year high and staffing issues still loom large.
Travel website Scott’s Cheap Flights polled its users and found that 51% of people said they plan to travel this holiday season. That’s down quite a bit from the 89% in 2021.
“I also think we are seeing a lot of folks who are having some sticker shock when they are seeing fares for this holiday season,” Scott’s Cheap Flights founder, Scott Keyes said. “For the first since the pandemic began, airfare is starting to look like something new and that is ‘normal.’”
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Spring and Summer travel showed that the demand is there and prices are reacting.
“Airplanes are more full today than they were at the same point in 2019 and that’s actually been true for virtually the entire year – since March,” Keyes said. “I think that is both attributable to a real resurgence in travel excitement and to the fact that the number of flights in the sky are still down about 15% compared to pre-pandemic thanks to this pilot shortage.”
Keyes said there are certain flights that are less likely to get hit with crippling disruptions like delays and cancellations.
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Non-stop flights are less likely to see issues with crippling disruptions.
Early morning flights are usually good to go because the aircraft is already parked and prepped at the airport.
See more of Scott’s Cheap Flight’s Holiday Travel Forecast.
