United Air Lines planes line up alongside the busy Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, on the eve of Thanksgiving on November 23, 2022.

Daniel Slim/AFP through Getty Images

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Daniel Slim/AFP through Getty Images

United Air Lines planes line up alongside the busy Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, on the eve of Thanksgiving on November 23, 2022.

Daniel Slim/AFP through Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Records are more likely to fall this week as thousands and thousands of Americans take to the skies for Thanksgiving.

The annual rush of vacation vacationers will take a look at a U.S. aviation system that’s straining to maintain up with demand. But federal regulators say the system is resilient and prepared.

“This year, we are seeing more people flying than ever with fewer cancellations than we have seen in years,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned at a press convention on Monday.

The Transportation Security Administration is predicting it would display greater than 30 million individuals throughout a 12-day window that began final Friday.

“We’re ready to go,” TSA deputy administrator Holly Canevari mentioned at a journey business convention in Washington, D.C. final week. “I think the Sunday after Thanksgiving will be our record-breaker” for a single day, Canevari mentioned.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (left) and FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker at a press convention on Monday in Washington.

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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (left) and FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker at a press convention on Monday in Washington.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration is anticipating practically 50,000 flights on Wednesday alone.

“While we don’t control the weather, we’re doing everything in our power to keep flights safe and keep cancellations and delays low this Thanksgiving,” mentioned Mike Whitaker, the newly-appointed administrator of the FAA, who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate final month.

The FAA responds to a troubling security warning

Whitaker is confronting deep issues about security in his first weeks on the job. An impartial security evaluation board appointed by the FAA is asking for “urgent action” to forestall airplane crashes after a collection of shut calls on runways throughout the nation this yr.

The panel’s 52-page report, launched final week, raises intensive issues concerning the scarcity of air site visitors controllers, in addition to outdated tools, which are “rendering the current level of safety unsustainable.”

Whitaker says the FAA welcomes the report, and has already introduced a number of new initiatives to hurry up the hiring of extra air site visitors controllers. Those embody hiring certified college students immediately from aeronautical faculties and universities, and deploying dozens of high-resolution tower simulators throughout the nation to take some stress off of the company’s coaching academy in Oklahoma.

The FAA can also be taking a look at the best way to decrease the attrition price for aspiring air site visitors controllers.

“There’s a fairly high failure rate” on the coaching academy, Whitaker advised reporters on Monday. “My initial focus has been on how to make these numbers go up quickly without lowering standards.”

While troubling, a few of the challenges outlined within the impartial security evaluation usually are not new.

“We have not put the resources we need into funding the air traffic control system — not just this year or last year, but for decades,” mentioned Geoff Freeman, the CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “We have not prioritized it. We’ve kicked the can down the road on modernization efforts, and we’re paying the price for that today.”

Flight attendants brace for the vacation rush

Full planes and crowded overhead bins may make for a difficult vacation within the flight cabin as properly.

“The holidays have always been a time period that flight attendants sort of dread going to work,” mentioned Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants union.

“The flying is much harder. You have inexperienced people, you’re answering more questions. There’s fewer of us,” she mentioned. “Which then often means that passengers are trying to work things out between each other, and you don’t have a referee there right at the start.”

Nelson says it was once widespread throughout the business for flight attendants to earn extra on vacation shifts, however these incentives have been step by step eroding. She urges vacationers to maintain all of that in thoughts when flying.

Thankfully, she says, most do.

“The vast majority of people come to the door of our airplane with kindness in their heart and a desire for a safe, uneventful flight.”