US Carriers Offering Varied Options for Thanksgiving Holiday Travel

U.S. airlines are trying to be as varied as possible, offering potential travelers different options to fly during the upcoming all-important holiday season that starts Nov. 23 with Thanksgiving week.

The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s has always been lucrative for the airlines, and many – United included – are hoping it continues to be just that in the face of a new surge of coronavirus cases across the country. Many carriers are projecting that the week of Nov. 23 will be its busiest since March, according to Fox Business.

United, in fact, says it’s adding more than 1,400 domestic flights during the week of Thanksgiving/

But it’s more than that. JetBlue is adding 25 flights from the New York Cita area to Florida, California and markets in the Caribbean including Port-au-Prince, San Juan, Santiago and Santo Domingo. American Airlines told FOX Business Monday that the carrier will also increase its flights from Nov. 24- 25 and Nov. 28 – 30.

“During the Thanksgiving holiday, we will increase our flying by approximately 15% compared to the rest of the month, from an average of 3,500 flights to more than 4,000 flights,” an American Airlines spokesperson told Fox Business.

Delta will also be increasing capacity around the holidays with over 3,800 peak-day flights during Thanksgiving.

Air travel has been picking up since dropping in April to just six percent of what capacity was at the time last year. it is now slowly on the rise but still only had 40 percent, and could use the much-needed boost that holiday travel would bring.

“Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen that customers continue to gain confidence in booking travel, in response to expert medical research on the safety of air travel and Delta’s multi-layered approach of cleanliness, space and safer service through the Delta CareStandard,” a Delta spokesperson told FOX Business.

In addition, United will also monitor last minute bookings in the event that the company needs “to swap in larger aircraft” to accommodate for the last-minute demand.