United States airlines are expecting influx of passengers for Thanksgiving this year. Over 25 million travelers will be flying to all sorts of destinations, the largest number of passengers in the last eight years.
Airlines for America (A4A) estimated that 25.3 million passengers will be carried by US airlines during the 12-day Thanksgiving holiday. This projected number is 3 percent higher than the number of passengers in 2014 which was estimated at 24.5 million, the industry trade organization for the United States airlines said.
An expected 65,000 people per day on top of average passengers will travel to destinations worldwide from Nov. 20 to Dec. 1. They expect the number of daily jetsetters between an average of 1.4 million and 2.7 million.
To accommodate the influx of passengers, airlines are adding bigger planes and extra routes. The increase of travelers was attributed to lower costs of airline fares.
Improvement of operations by most airlines contributed to more people finding opportunities to travel. Airlines also benefited as lower costs of fuel and increased travel demand increased their profits to an estimated $18.8 billion in earnings in the first nine months of 2015.
"As competition continues to boost schedules and drive down airfares in 2015, customers are seeing more opportunities to fly during the holiday season," John Heimlich, A4A vice president and chief economist said. He added that most airlines have added larger aircraft to accommodate the number of passengers they expect to carry during the busiest season of the year.
The fall of fuel costs to 36 percent in 2014 aided in reducing operating expenses by 8.8 percent. However, expenses on wages and benefits increased by 11.2 percent as airlines hired more employees.
Upgrades and reinvestments benefited passengers as they now enjoy in-seat power, in-flight entertainments, new planes, additional destinations, Wi-Fi services and quality food on board.
Airlines are expecting the busiest travel days are Nov. 25 (Wednesday), Nov. 29 (Sunday) and Nov. 30 (Monday). Around 10 percent of passengers are going to international destinations.
Passengers are advised to expect busy airports. "It's going to be a zoo at the airports. Over the last three or four years about 15 to 20 percent of flights during the Thanksgiving travel weekend have been delayed or cancelled, so be prepared for those potential eventualities," said Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com.
Photo: Travis Wise | Flickr
