NEW YORK — It’s Thanksgiving week and a record number of people are expected to take to the roads or skies to celebrate.
AAA estimates that 80 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles this week.
The Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday will likely be the busiest day at the nation’s airports and that 18.3 million people are expected to be screened from Tuesday through Dec. 2, a 6% increase from last year and an increase of 17% compared to 2022.
Those are huge numbers, so if an airport is in your future this week, officials say you should plan ahead and get there early.
Smooth sailing so far at Newark Liberty
Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport was truly the calm before the storm on Sunday. CBS News New York’s Derick Waller spoke with officials about what travelers can expect from what many expect to be the busiest holiday season ever.
Newark is a major hub for United Airlines, which operates nearly 400 flights a day there. Officials said operations were running smoothly with very few delays, but in recent weeks there have been significant delays due to something completely out of the airlines’ control: a shortage of air traffic controllers.
Waller spoke exclusively with John Weigand, United’s director of their operations center in Newark, about how this will impact flights.
“We work with them every day. They do everything they can to produce new controllers, and just like pilots, you don’t make that overnight, right?” Weigand said. They have to go to school, and there is a skills component to that.”
