Thanksgiving notoriously is known to backup the airports and disrupt the system nationwide when planes are packed to the gills with quite a few flying for the only time all year. The airport is packed, you need to budget an extra hour to handle the long lines. The pre boarding block of families with small children becomes the majority of those wishing to board. Backlog of pushed times to push mess up the schedule for the airlines all week. None of this seemed to happen from what I encountered flying the Tuesday before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2010.
I was on one of two Delta MD-88s heading from Indianapolis to Atlanta within one hour of eachother. Repositioning a total of about 300 travellers in time to make the last flight out of ATL to their feasting destination for the night. I remembered from my last time going at this time of the evening that lines get long with this mostly regional jet airport of Indianapolis having many more passengers leaving at one time. Even with the security "opt out" rumors to slow things down as a form of protest things moved along much more smoothly than I envisioned and personnel were very vocal with each and every one of us to be sure we were well informed. In Atlanta I did notice that every last Delta aircraft had its tail tell light turned off, making them quite a bit harder to see in the night environment. Perhaps not using the optional lights extends the life of onboard systems and slightly less fuel use.My next flight was on a 757 also 100% full and we were moved up to the northern runway to get an early right turn towards Boston to land at 11:58, just before the airport "shuts down" for the night in consideration for sleeping neighbors.
My flight back was on an evening nonstop that surprisingly was not full. Comair had surrendered the route to Shuttle America in October to offer slightly more seats on the sleek ERJ-175. The two hour flight felt more like 15 minutes and the service was stellar. I had picked out a window from what looked like where a couple had bailed on their reservation of two together when I was at the kiosk. The aisle seat next to me remained vacant. The young friendly crew represented the upper Delta brand very well on this roomy RJ. My professor here teaching us about airlines said the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year by passenger numbers, though about 6 or 7 empty seats came back with me.
As for academics, my Basic Aircraft Science course has moved on to helicopter flight concepts which can be difficult to grasp, though I memorized FAA helicopter manuals over the summer the prepare for a flight with an instructor so this is more of a refresher for me. Weight and balance is also being slipped in last minute as we look over the physics concepts and reglations that have been taught. Less than three weeks from now I will be all wrapped up with fall semester and boarding another flight to get to the festivities for the next holiday.
