Airlines Pass the Thanksgiving Test

We give it an A.

Except for a slight hiccup by American Airlines, U.S. carriers passed the test as they emerged from the Thanksgiving holiday travel period with flying colors – no pun intended.

Many expected this to be a tough task for the airlines considering the amount of expected fliers during the 10-day travel period, a nationwide staffing shortage, a pending unfavorable weather forecast, and previous operational implosions.

There were four major instances of major delays and cancellations by three airlines this year – American, Spirit and two by Southwest – that lasted days at a time. In fact, Southwest said it cost its bottom line $75 million.

But the perfect storm never materialized.

The weather held off for the most part and didn’t play havoc with airline schedules. Carriers were also proactive in addressing staffing issues by offering hefty incentive bonus pay to current employees for working the holidays between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. The Transportation Security Administration appeared to handle the increased number of travelers. There were only a couple of reported passenger incidents. And there were no technology meltdowns that might have contributed to cancellations.

Only American Airlines had a small issue. According to the U.S. version of the British newspaper The Sun, American had delays on both Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving Day though it was relatively minor – a total of 56 cancellations and 471 delays over the two days.

In an emailed statement to The Sun, American said it was not due to “any major operational issues this week while carrying a lot of customers given the Thanksgiving holiday.”