美国国家公共电台 NPR--This year's holiday travel season is going to be as chaotic as pre-pandemic levels

This year's holiday travel season is going to be as chaotic¹ as pre-pandemic levels

Transcript²

The holiday travel season is underway, and It stands to be just as busy as pre-pandemic times.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

All right. So hopefully, you got to your Thanksgiving destination safely and without too many hassles because the number of people traveling this week appears to be close to pre-pandemic levels. And that means long lines at airports and train stations, jampacked planes and gridlocked roads and highways.

NPR's transportation correspondent David Schaper is watching the roads and the skies to give us some perspective on Thanksgiving travel. David, I've been on quite a few planes the last couple of weeks. There has never been an empty seat anywhere on that plane. So are travelers and this travel season becoming more like pre-pandemic levels?

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE³: Yeah. I mean, when it comes to flying in particular, travelers are definitely back. I mean, one airline industry official says this is the first normal holiday season in three years. The number of people flying between now and the start of the new year is expected to get very close to pre-pandemic levels, if not surpass pre-pandemic levels. Nick Calio, the head of the industry group Airlines for America, puts it this way.

NICK CALIO: It's going to be very busy. We're going to be flying over 2 million people a day. And it's been a rough go. It's been two years or three years since we've had a normal Thanksgiving.

SCHAPER: What's interesting about this, A, is that airlines are actually flying fewer flights over the holidays this year than last year. It's 4% fewer flights and 13% fewer flights than in 2019, according to the air travel data firm Cirium. But at the same time, they're actually offering more seats.

MART?NEZ: OK. Fewer flights, more seats - how does that work, and how is it affecting airfares?

SCHAPER: Well, the airlines are just flying bigger planes while parking some of their smaller regional jets. It's just more efficient and economical to fly more passengers on fewer planes with fewer pilots. So this means there will be more seats available on routes between big cities, but it's going to be a lot more difficult to find flights to Grand Junction⁴, Colo., or Duluth, Minn., or other smaller markets.

And across the board, capacity is very tight and the airlines' costs are up. So airfares are up substantially - 43% over last year and 15% above 2019 levels.

MART?NEZ: Now, it used to be that yesterday, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the Sunday after were the busiest days for the airlines all year. Is that still true?

SCHAPER: Yeah. I mean, those are still the two busiest travel days of the Thanksgiving period, but they're not as busy as they used to be. You know, like everything else post-pandemic, people are changing the way they travel.

Mike Arnot of the airline data firm Cirium says especially those who can work remotely, they seem to be spreading out their travel over the entire Thanksgiving week and beyond.

MIKE ARNOT: Instead of trying to get back to the office on the Monday after Thanksgiving, maybe you can use that flexible work schedule that you have to pick the cheaper travel day, which will be, you know, the Tuesday or the Wednesday right after Thanksgiving.

SCHAPER: You know, this is a pattern we're seeing in other parts of the year, too, even with hybrid⁵ work-cation trips, where a business trip to one city on a Wednesday or Thursday might include a long weekend stay there, too.

MART?NEZ: Now, over the summer, I remember several airlines had meltdowns, operational meltdowns that caused a large number of flight delays and cancellations. Are the airlines now maybe better prepared for the holiday travel surge?

SCHAPER: The airlines say they're better prepared. They've been on a hiring spree. And as of August, actually, they now have more employees than they did before the pandemic, including 10% more pilots at the seven biggest airlines. They've significantly trimmed their schedules to match them more realistically to their staffing levels, so they say. Whether or not they have enough wiggle room for when bad weather inevitably⁶ hits or some other problems arise, that remains⁷ to be seen.

MART?NEZ: David, what about the people that don't want to fly and want to drive? What do the roads look like?

SCHAPER: Well, they're very busy. AAA estimates nearly 49 million people are driving for Thanksgiving, most of them leaving home yesterday, which gave us some of the worst traffic jams of the entire weekend. The mobility⁸ data analytics firm INRIX projects where the worst congestion⁹ will be and finds that there will likely be some pretty bad traffic jams on Sunday when many of us return home. And they're even predicting some heavy traffic on Saturday in a lot of cities, as well.

Now, meanwhile, the National Safety Council is urging drivers to be cautious, especially if, like me, you're in a part of the country that's likely getting snow. They estimate more than 500 people will die in preventable crashes on the nation's roadways through Sunday, and many of them due to intoxicated¹⁰ drivers.

MART?NEZ: That's NPR transportation correspondent David Schaper. David, thanks.

SCHAPER: My pleasure, A.

1 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 junction   

n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站

参考例句：

• There's a bridge at the junction of the two rivers.两河的汇合处有座桥。
• You must give way when you come to this junction.你到了这个路口必须让路。

5 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

6 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

9 congestion   

n.阻塞，消化不良

参考例句：

• The congestion in the city gets even worse during the summer.夏天城市交通阻塞尤为严重。
• Parking near the school causes severe traffic congestion.在学校附近泊车会引起严重的交通堵塞。

10 intoxicated   

喝醉的，极其兴奋的

参考例句：

• She was intoxicated with success. 她为成功所陶醉。
• They became deeply intoxicated and totally disoriented. 他们酩酊大醉，东南西北全然不辨。