’Tis the season to be paranoid. After last winter’s travel chaos, can you blame us for feeling anxious about airports?
There was that “once in a generation storm,” and the resulting Southwest meltdown where more than 15,000 flights were canceled over the busy holiday travel stretch. Then there’s the string of airplane near-misses over the past year attributed to understaffing and outdated technology at the Federal Aviation Administration.
As the next wave of holiday travel approaches, is there any hope for us?
Scott Keyes, founder of the flight booking site Going, says bad weather will always be an X factor, but airlines are coming into the holidays on much stronger footing this December. He argues airlines have more staff than in 2022 and more planes in rotation. Cancellations are down from last year, too, from 2.7 percent to about 1.6 (through September). After the Southwest debacle, “airlines walked away with a much more conservative approach to scheduling, and now the schedules are much more realistic,” Keyes added.
The Transportation Security Administration also recorded its busiest day on record over the Thanksgiving travel period, and there were no meltdowns.
But as the old saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Here are nine ways to prepare for holiday flying, just in case, from low-lift to hardcore.
