The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expects the upcoming Thanksgiving rush to be the largest holiday air-travel surge since 2010. In a statement issued late Friday, November 21, the agency said more than 360,000 flights are scheduled between November 21 and December 1, with a single-day peak of 52,000 flights forecast for Tuesday, November 25.
Behind the robust schedule is an unprecedented rebound in corporate travel, a shift to hybrid work that enables long weekend getaways, and airlines’ aggressive capacity growth—U.S. carriers have added roughly 45,000 seats a day versus the 2024 holiday period. The FAA says it will deploy “air-space flow programs” and use new time-based separation tools first piloted at Dallas/Fort Worth to keep traffic moving smoothly. Business travelers transiting the crowded Northeast Corridor should still budget extra time: icing conditions are possible in the Mid-Atlantic, while a second storm system could bring low ceilings to Chicago and Detroit on the Sunday return.
![FAA Projects Busiest Thanksgiving Air Travel in 15 Years]()
For mobility managers, the key takeaway is operational resilience. Companies moving assignees over the holiday week should verify that employees have TSA PreCheck or CLEAR memberships and monitor real-time FAA delay programs. If a flight is canceled, DOT’s new Airline Customer Service Dashboard—updated this month with mandatory cash-refund data—can speed re-booking.
Longer term, the FAA’s holiday performance will be a political litmus test for Administrator Bryan Bedford, who is seeking congressional support for the agency’s five-year NextGen funding plan geared toward satellite-based navigation and expanded controller staffing. A smooth Thanksgiving could bolster his case that technology investment pays dividends in capacity and reliability.
Behind the robust schedule is an unprecedented rebound in corporate travel, a shift to hybrid work that enables long weekend getaways, and airlines’ aggressive capacity growth—U.S. carriers have added roughly 45,000 seats a day versus the 2024 holiday period. The FAA says it will deploy “air-space flow programs” and use new time-based separation tools first piloted at Dallas/Fort Worth to keep traffic moving smoothly. Business travelers transiting the crowded Northeast Corridor should still budget extra time: icing conditions are possible in the Mid-Atlantic, while a second storm system could bring low ceilings to Chicago and Detroit on the Sunday return.
For mobility managers, the key takeaway is operational resilience. Companies moving assignees over the holiday week should verify that employees have TSA PreCheck or CLEAR memberships and monitor real-time FAA delay programs. If a flight is canceled, DOT’s new Airline Customer Service Dashboard—updated this month with mandatory cash-refund data—can speed re-booking.
Longer term, the FAA’s holiday performance will be a political litmus test for Administrator Bryan Bedford, who is seeking congressional support for the agency’s five-year NextGen funding plan geared toward satellite-based navigation and expanded controller staffing. A smooth Thanksgiving could bolster his case that technology investment pays dividends in capacity and reliability.
