The holidays are a season of cheer and joy meant to be spent with family and loved ones. People herd by the millions taking to the roads, sky and any other means of transportation to be with family. This year’s numbers do not shy away for this annual pilgrimage around the nation. 49 million people are expected to travel by road just for Thanksgiving alone, according to the American Automobile Association. Another 4.51 million will take to the sky and 1.43 million will travel by other means.

Many easily overlook the importance of people in the aviation, food, hospitality and shipping industries. The holidays are portrayed as a happy time where being with family is a necessity, but this is just not the case for some essential workers, begging the question: is it better to be home or away during the holidays? Many would respond yes, being that being with family over holidays is viewed as an essential. During the pandemic, holidays were not able to be celebrated in the typical manner, which makes people desire to make up for the lost times.

Gabe Sigel is the Senior Communications Manager for Travelzoo, an internet deal publisher and believes the relaxing of regulations will cause a surge of travelers especially during the holidays.
“For many travelers, this holiday season will be a return to a more ‘normal’ travel routine after two or even three years of pandemic-era cutbacks, and that surge in demand will mean busy airports and packed planes,” Sigel said.

Pilots are in high demand as the airline industry is in desperate need of a younger generation of pilots as their counterparts are aging out and ineligible to fly. With this being said, many are being forced to work over the holidays. Instead of being at home, some senior pilots find themselves in the cockpit ensuring others will get to spend their time with loved ones. These pilots are offered high-pay incentives over the holidays, but some think that it just can’t replace time lost at home.

“With the significant increase in passengers, most flight crews will spend the holidays away from their families. To help make sure that they have crews to operate their flights, airlines may pay special holiday bonuses for their time,” student pilot Charlie Millinor (12) said.

Others travel over the holidays for other reasons such as skiing, ice skating, and other winter festivities that bring in loads of profit for the industries open during this time. As one party loses the benefit of traveling, they gain the opportunity to profit in this very necessary time span.

Mac Russell (12) travels a good bit over the holidays to partake in winter festivities.
“Over Christmas break and Thanksgiving, I think being on vacation is more fun. I enjoy traveling to ski and participate in other winter activities,” Russell said.

This kind of traveling can be beneficial to the public and communities that set up for this kind of actives over holidays. Traveling over the holidays can be viewed as a controversial topic for some but that shouldn’t shy anyone away from spending their holidays as desired.