Holiday travel flight cancellations: What you need to know

HONOLULU (KHON2) — The holiday season is one of the busiest times to travel. Whether you are flying, driving or taking a train, there will be a lot of people out there.

Most all of the major airlines based in the United States along with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said that travelers need to expect that 2023 will see record high air travel during the Thanksgiving weekend.

“We expect this holiday season to be our busiest ever. In 2023, we have already seen seven of the top 10 busiest travel days in TSA’s history,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske.

In 2022, TSA said that more than 2 million people were traveling each day before and after Thanksgiving, and they expect many more travelers for the 2023 holiday travel season.

One of the most annoying things that can happen to travelers while out there going from one place to another is flight cancellations.

“We are ready for the anticipated volumes and are working closely with our airline and airport partners to make sure we are prepared for this busy holiday travel season,” said Pekoske.

When we are in the middle of the traveler mele, we don’t really have time to ponder the reasons why we are being kept from reaching our destination.

But there are a couple of reasons why this occurs.

The most common reason for flight cancellations is due to outside factors over which airlines have no control. This includes things like weather — blizzards, thunderstorms, things like that — and issues with which the airports need to deal.

“We will also do our best to maintain wait time standards of under 10 minutes for TSA PreCheck® lanes and under 30 minutes for standard screening lanes,” said Pekoske.

The most annoying reason for flights being cancelled is due something caused by the airline itself. During Thanksgiving 2022, more than 4,200 flights were delayed and another 109 were cancelled.

You can track flight cancellations and delays for Daniel K. Inouye Airport on the site FlightAware. According to their analysis, Honolulu’s airport was experiencing between 58 and 69 delays leaving the airport each day over the weekend (Nov. 10, 11 and 12) with zero to two cancellations.

“I am grateful for our dedicated employees who continue to remain vigilant and focused on the mission during this holiday travel season and beyond,” added Pekoske.