The Essentials
Holiday Travel Punctuality: 2024
The year 2024 could be the most on-time holiday travel period in recent history.
Thanksgiving already set a record — only 0.3% of flights were canceled, and delays were a record low of 1.4% for the Thanksgiving week.
This was helped in no small part by the FAA opening up military airspace off the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, allowing air traffic controllers to better space out planes and keep them in the air, rather than holding them on the ground.
This stands in stark contrast to the summer of 2024 when nearly 29% of all flights experienced delays. As for Christmas, weather permitting, the hope is that the FAA will once again open military airspace. Maybe Santa will be on time too.