Thanksgiving week air travel set to set pandemic-era record despite calls to stay home

(CNN) – Air travel during Thanksgiving week is expected to remain strong enough to set a pandemic-era record despite urges from federal health officials to spend the holidays at home.

Since the CDC issued the warning, nearly 5 million people have boarded planes. The agency receives information on airline passengers as part of its screening responsibilities, and the data does not show widespread cancellations in recent days, TSA spokesman Andy Post said.

From September to October, the number of available seats scheduled from US airports decreased by almost 50% compared to the same period last year. Due to increased demand, that number is only down 39% for the Thanksgiving holiday season, according to Airlines for America, a trade association that represents major North American airlines.

Yet officials still expect Sunday – when everyone returns from their vacation trip – to be the busiest travel day since the start of the pandemic.

While the number of travelers passing through airport security on Sunday is worrying, many Americans are heeding the warnings from officials and health experts. Sixty-one percent of Americans said they changed their Thanksgiving plans, according to a poll released Tuesday by Axios-Ipsos. More surprisingly, nearly one in 10 Americans surveyed say they do not celebrate the holiday at all.

The country added 172,935 new cases of Covid-19 and 2,146 deaths reported on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Tuesday also marks the fifth highest day for new cases during the pandemic, and the United States has reported more than 100,000 new cases of coronavirus for the 22nd day in a row. The United States is currently recording an average of 174,225 new cases per day, an increase of 11% from last week.

Fixed: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the percentage of seats available from US airports. It is down 50% from the same period last year.

CNN’s Marnie Hunter, Amanda Watts, Virginia Landmaid, Pete Muntean and Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.