Thanksgiving travel kicks off early at Logan Airport amid return to normal airline operations

BOSTON, MASS. — The Thanksgiving travel rush is on—with over 52,000 flights taking off Tuesday alone.

“We’re a little nervous, we’re a little nervous,” said Adrienne Alexson, who is traveling back home to California. “We have a layover in Newark, so we’re trying to get out.”

But this Thanksgiving, travelers are thankful that the government shut down is over, so all flight schedules are back to normal.

“We anticipate there’s going to be solid staffing in our towers and recons and centers throughout the airspace and that’s different than what we had over the shutdown,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

The FAA says it expects this will be the busiest Thanksgiving holiday travel season in 15 years with Tuesday being the most traveled day during this stretch.

“There are ten schools within a five-mile radius, we all get off only on Wednesday, so everyone had the same exact idea so I’m happy I got here early,” said Morrison.

The TSA recommends passengers to arrive at the airport two hours before their flight. Massport CEO Rich Davey says Logan is fully operational, especially with its runway construction complete. While it’s ready to handle the influx of travelers, he is asking them to be patient.

“Give yourself a little extra time,” said Massport CEO Rich Davey. “While we have some of the lowest TSA wait times in the United States, we expect again with more than a million customers coming through Logan Airport that wait times will be a little higher.”

Travelers are heding hearing that advice and already planning ahead for their return trips home.

“We had a driver bring us to the airport, we’re here plenty early, expecting delays and we’re coming home a day early just to make sure we don’t get delayed further,” said Sean Stewart, who is flying to Minnesota to visit his daughter for the holiday.

“I have school on Monday, can’t miss class,” said Morrison.

The next busiest travel day will be Sunday—as people are heading back for work and school. As always, travelers are recommended to check their flight status online or on their airline app before coming to the airport.

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