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Just as there are good odds the turkey will taste dry, airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed 

 week, a holiday period likely to end in 

The people responsible for keeping security lines, 

 and jetliners moving — from the U.S. 

transportation secretary and airline chiefs

 on down the line — swear they are prepared for the crowds.

Airline passengers might get lucky like they did 

, when relatively few flights were canceled during the holiday week. A repeat will require 

 cooperation. And even if skies are blue, a shortage of 

Auto club and insurance company AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday. Most of them will travel by car.

. The nationwide average price for gasoline was $3.06 a gallon on Sunday, down from $3.27 at this time last year.

The Transportation Security Administration expects 

 18.3 million people at U.S. airports during the same seven-day stretch. That would be 6 percent more than during the corresponding days last year but fit a pattern set throughout 2024.

The TSA predicts that 3 million people will pass through 

 checkpoints on Sunday; more than that could break the record of 3.01 million set on the Sunday after the July Fourth holiday. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be the next-busiest air travel days of Thanksgiving week.

“This will be the busiest Thanksgiving ever in terms of air travel,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. “Fortunately, our staffing is also at the highest levels that they have ever been. We are ready.”

Pekoske said TSA will have enough screeners to keep general security lines under 30 minutes and lines for people who pay extra for PreCheck under 10 minutes.

Air travelers hoping to beat the rush may encounter some difficulties at North Carolina's 

, where workers who clean airplanes, remove trash and help with wheelchairs went what was expected to be a 24-hour strike early Monday.

The unionized service workers walked off the job to protest what they call unlivable wages.

Airport officials said they were “monitoring and actively engaged with all partners to ensure terminal operations are not impacted,” noting that the striking workers were employed by a private contractor and not the city’s aviation department.

The Charlotte airport is the nation's ninth-busiest in terms of passenger volume and serves a regional hub. Airport officials said they expected an estimated 1.02 million passengers to depart the airport between 

last Thursday and the Monday after Thanksgiving

FAA staffing shortage could create delays

However, an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers could cause flight delays.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that he expects his agency to use special measures to deal with shortages at some facilities. In the past, that has included 

“If we are short on staff, we will slow traffic as needed to keep the system safe,” Whitaker said.

The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of controllers that airline officials expect will last for years, despite the agency's lofty hiring goals.

Thanksgiving Day takes place late this year, with the fourth Thursday of November falling on Nov. 28. That shortens the traditional shopping season and changes the rhythm of holiday travel.

, people tend to spread out their outbound travel over more days, but everyone returns at the same time, said Andrew Watterson, the chief operating officer of 

“A late Thanksgiving leads to a big crush at the end — the Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving are usually very busy with Thanksgiving this late," Watterson said.

Airlines did a relatively good job of handling holiday crowds last year, when the weather was mild in most of the country. Fewer than 400 U.S. flights were canceled during Thanksgiving week in 2023 — about one of every 450 flights. So far in 2024, airlines have canceled about 1.3 percent of all flights.

The rise of remote work also has caused the Thanksgiving 

“The pandemic changed everything,” she said. “What we have seen is that post-pandemic, people are leaving at certain times, perhaps even leaving the weekend before Thanksgiving, working remotely from their destination a couple of days, and then enjoying time with their loved ones.”

Nightmares of Thanksgivings past have further shaped holiday traffic jams. Motorists who 

 traveling the day before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving have created new bottlenecks on other days, according to Diaz.

“Because we warned for so long (that) Wednesday and Sunday are the worst days to travel, people were like, ‘OK, I’m going to leave on Tuesday and come back on Monday to avoid the rush,’" she said. “So now those two days are congested as well.”

Airport security officials are pleading with passengers to arrive early, not to put lithium-ion batteries in checked bags in case they overheat, and to keep guns out of carry-on bags. TSA has discovered more than 

 this year, and most of them were loaded.

Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas bring out many infrequent travelers, and they often have questions about what they can bring on the plane.

 of items that are banned or restricted.

Drivers should know that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons will be the worst times to travel by car, but it should be smooth sailing on freeways come Thanksgiving Day, according to transportation analytics company INRIX.

On the return home, the best travel times for motorists are before 1 p.m. on Sunday, and before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Monday, the company said.

In metropolitan areas like Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, “traffic is expected to be more than double what it typically is on a normal day,” INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue said.

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The Thanksgiving travel rush is expected to be bigger than ever this year. AAA predicts that nearly 80 million people in the U.S. will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday — most of them by car. 

‘Busiest Thanksgiving ever’: How the TSA plans to handle record air travel

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