The Thanksgiving holiday rush approached full swing at U.S. airports on Tuesday, testing travelers’ patience.

The Transportation Security Administration is expected to screen more than 2.8 million people on Tuesday and 2.9 million on Wednesday, after covering more than 2.5 million people on Monday.

Everything seemed to go relatively smoothly at most airports, considering how busy they were.

By early evening Tuesday, only about 70 U.S. flights had been canceled on the East Coast, but more than 3,200 had been delayed. According to tracking service FlightAware, airlines averaged about 4,500 flight delays per day over the past three days.

On the ground there were a few low-speed collisions Boston Logan International Airport. A US airlines A plane that crashed into a gate struck the wingtips of a parked Frontier Airlines plane Monday, but no injuries were reported. On Monday evening, a tugboat towing an empty JetBlue plane struck a Cape Air plane and two Cape Air pilots were taken to a hospital as a precaution, an airport spokesman said.

Eyes on the sky

An explosion in the Arctic in the Midwest and wet weather in the eastern US could disrupt travel the coming days.

A storm system moving across the West Coast was expected to bring heavy snow to the Intermountain West on Wednesday, including the Rockies in Colorado, the Bitterroot Range in Idaho and Montana and the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. .

For Thanksgiving Day, forecasters expect clear weather across the western two-thirds of the country, but a mix of rain and snow from Michigan and Ohio to New England.

Temperatures were in the high 30s in Chicago on Tuesday, but that was fine for Kristy Vincent of Houston, who landed at O’Hare Airport.

“I’m so excited. There is no snow. I’m not going to freeze to death,” Vincent said, adding that she was “a little concerned” about the weekend forecast calling for high temperatures in the 20s.

Thanksgiving, in numbers

Auto club and insurance company AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday. Most of them will travel by car.

Drivers should get a little break gas prices. The national average price for gasoline was $3.07 per gallon on Tuesday, compared to $3.25 at this time last year.

However, airfares are about 4.1% higher than a year ago government figures.

The Transportation Security Administration expects that to screen 18.3 million people at US airports during the same seven-day stretch. That would be 6% more than during the corresponding days last year, but fits into a pattern that will continue for the whole of 2024.

The TSA predicts 3 million people will pass through airport security checkpoints on Sundays; more than that could break the record of 3.01 million set the Sunday after the Fourth of July holiday. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be the second busiest air travel days of the Thanksgiving week.

Shortage of staff at the FAA could cause delays

TSA Administrator David Pekoske said his agency is ready, with its highest staffing levels ever, but an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration could cause flight delays.

FAA Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that his agency will likely take special measures to address shortages at some facilities.

“If we are short-staffed, we will slow traffic as necessary to keep the system safe,” he said.

Over the past two years, similar measures have slowed the number of flights abroad New York and Florida.

The FAA has long faced a controller shortage that aviation officials expect will last for years, despite the agency’s lofty hiring goals.

Anger over compensation

A Senate panel took advantage of the busy travel season to release a report criticizing airlines over what they called “junk fees,” and announced that it will call executives from five airlines to explain why they charge extra charge costs.

Airline fees have been rising for nearly two decades, starting with extra fees for checking bags and extending to early boarding and other benefits.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said Tuesday that American, Delta, United, Frontier and Spirit collected $12.4 billion in reimbursements for better seats between 2018 and 2023. Passengers paid extra to get more legroom or an aisle or window seat.

“As we enter the Thanksgiving weekend, we regret that travelers will be charged millions of dollars in fees that have no basis in cost to the airlines but simply increase their profits,” said panel chairman Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Airlines for America, the leading trade group for major U.S. airlines, dismissed the report as “just another talking point about leisure travel.”

The group said fees give consumers the choice to pay for the services they want and skip the ones they don’t. The report states that, after accounting for inflation, the average number of roundtrip trips in the US, including costs, fell by 14% between 2010 and 2023.

Turkey on the plane

TSA says it’s OK to bring turkey, stuffing and other favorite holiday foods through airport checkpoints, although liquids like gravy and cranberry sauce should not exceed 3.4 ounces.

Just because you can take it on the plane doesn’t mean you should.

“Especially when it comes to gravy, I wouldn’t want that in my carry-on, and certainly not in my checked luggage,” said TSA spokesperson Lorie Dankers.

Thanksgiving brings out flyers irregularly and they often have questions about what to bring on the plane. The TSA app and website have lists of items that are prohibited or restricted.

Driving time

Drivers should know that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons are the worst times to travel by car, but things should be smooth on the highways on Thanksgiving Day, according to transportation analytics firm INRIX.

When returning home, the best travel times for motorists are before 1 p.m. on Sunday and before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Monday, the company said.

In metropolitan areas such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, “traffic is expected to be more than double what it normally would be on a normal day,” said INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue.

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Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City, Melissa Perez Winder in Chicago and Mike Householder in Romulus, Michigan, contributed to this report.