The FAA says it will throttle traffic over the holiday weekend to mitigate expected staff shortages. The agency got ahead of the inevitable misery with a news conference at Reagan National on Friday, and Administrator Mike Whitaker told reporters safety is paramount. “During the Thanksgiving travel period, we will use traffic flow management initiatives to deal with any staffing shortages on that particular day in this airspace, and we expect to have some of those shortages,” Whitaker said. “If we are short on staff, we will slow traffic as needed to keep the system safe.”
Airlines have added thousands of seats to meet Thanksgiving demand and the current estimates are that 31 million people will take off somewhere in the U.S., compared to 29 million in 2023. Whitaker said the New York area will likely see the most controller-related issues. Weather will also likely cause problems. Cold, snow and high winds are anticipated from the Mississippi to the Eastern Seaboard thanks to a polar outbreak pushing in from the Canadian prairies.
