American Airlines is ready for the Thanksgiving holiday and expects to welcome nearly 8.3 million customers across more than 77,000 flights. This comes on the heels of a strong fall travel season, when the airline canceled the fewest flights in the industry during October.
“Thanks to the hard work of our 130,000 team members, we canceled fewer flights than any of our major competitors this October and beat our own records for on-time departures and arrivals,” said David Seymour, American’s Chief Operating Officer. “When you purchase a ticket on American, you’re trusting us to provide a safe and reliable journey. We are ready to continue delivering on that promise this Thanksgiving.”
American is staffed and prepared for winter weather, with team members trained for deicing and expanded capacity at airports like Chicago O’Hare (ORD). The airline also continues to improve the airport experience for a more efficient and pleasant journey.
7 quick facts about American’s Thanksgiving operation:
- American’s travel period runs from Nov. 21 to Dec. 3, and the airline expects to carry more than 500,000 more customers than last year.
- The most-traveled day will be Sunday, Dec. 1, with the second most-traveled day slated for Monday, Dec. 2.
- 1,500 mainline and regional aircraft will travel nearly 65 million miles — the equivalent of more than 2,500 times around the Earth — between Nov. 21 and Dec. 3.
- The peak of peak: 1,035 mainline and regional aircraft will be enroute at 10:45 a.m. CT on Sunday, Dec. 1, the highest number of flights handled at any given time during American’s travel period.
- The airline expects to serve more than 6.8 million Biscoff® cookies on board from Nov. 21 to Dec. 3. If placed in a line, these cookies would stretch nearly the distance of a flight from New York (LGA/JFK) to Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT).
- Thanksgiving comes after American’s best-ever October for on-time departures, on-time arrivals and baggage handling performance.
- There were nine days in October when American did not cancel a single mainline flight and 10 when the airline didn’t cancel a single regional flight.
