Holiday-travel chaos: Airlines brace for huge weekend crowds
The July Fourth holiday weekend is off to a booming start with airport crowds crushing the numbers seen in 2019, before the pandemic.
Travelers across the United States experienced hundreds of canceled flights and a few thousand delays on Friday, much as they did earlier this week.
Patricia Carreno arrived with friends at Los Angeles International Airport only to learn that their Alaska Airlines flight to Mazatlan, Mexico, had been canceled.
“We’re probably going to drive down to Mexico — to Tijuana, the border — and just fly from there," she said.
The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2.4 million travelers at airport checkpoints on Thursday, 17% more than on the same Friday before July Fourth in 2019. U.S. air travel is likely to set a pandemic-era record at least once over the weekend.
Traffic on the highway could be heavy too.
AAA predicts that nearly 48 million people will travel at least 50 miles or more from home over the weekend, slightly fewer than in 2019. AAA says car travel will set a record even with the national average price for gasoline hovering near $5.
Leisure travel has bounced back this year, and that means particularly big crowds over three-day holiday weekends.
With many flights sold out over the July Fourth weekend, airlines will struggle to find seats for passengers like Carreno whose flights are canceled. Airlines told customers to check their flight’s status before going to the airport.
If you’re already at the airport when your flight is canceled, “it’s time to flex your multitasking skills,” said Sebastian Modak, editor-at-large of travel guide publisher Lonely Planet.
Modak advised heading straight to the airline’s help desk, checking its app on your phone, and calling the airline’s customer-service line — an...