These are the busiest holiday travel times this week at DFW Airport and Dallas Love Field

DFW International Airport will hit its main holiday around 10am on Wednesday as avid Thanksgiving travelers weave their way through TSA security lines, grab a bar before the flight, and line up in front of the gates.

The same thing will happen just an hour early at Dallas Love Field, according to travel dates website Hopper.

“It looks like it will be pretty busy,” said Adit Damodaran, an economist at Hopper. “Similar to previous years, when the day before Thanksgiving was busiest.”

Airlines

Thanksgiving flyers will bring DFW Airport, Dallas Love Field to the highs of the COVID era

DFW International Airport could accommodate up to 260,000 passengers on the day before Thanksgiving, the main flight day in an auspicious holiday travel season. Airlines are pushing their capacities, although experts warn the possibility of massive disruption is high after operational battles erupted earlier this fall at American Airlines, based in Fort Worth and Southwest, based in Dallas.

Airlines are preparing for the busiest travel season in nearly two years, with up to 316,000 travelers dropping in and out of North Texas’s two major commercial airports on their way to family visits and Thanksgiving celebrations.

DFW International Airport alone expects 2.3 million passengers in the Thanksgiving period from November 18 to 29, around 95% as many passengers as in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

But while Wednesday will be big crowds, the busiest day of the entire Thanksgiving New Years travel season will likely be Sunday, November 29th, when all of these leisure travelers return home from their Turkey Day celebrations.

This year is clouded by the COVID-19 pandemic and a host of problems that have arisen from it. Airlines struggled with cancellations and delays, masking requirements, vaccination requirements, and a host of other issues during peak travel times that delayed companies’ recovery from nearly two years of depressive activity.

Travelers wonder when to leave their travels to avoid being sidelined by delays, while airlines offer bonus payments and airline miles to encourage pilots, flight attendants, and other workers to take on extra shifts.

Nationwide, the Transportation Security Administration said it expected 20 million passengers between November 19 and 29. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said it could see up to 550,000 travelers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, “well above the previous single-day record after the 516,000 downturn set this summer.”

American Airlines will operate 834 flights from DFW the day before Thanksgiving and 850 flights on Sunday, November 28, according to Cirium’s Diio flight data service.

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