Few problems due to lighter loads?
 

A friend in the airline industry speculated that the relative lack of congestion at security lines on Wednesday was due in part to much lighter than expected loads. Anybody have confirmation of that?

This might be true as I'd heard a report from AAA that said more people were driving to their destinations this year than in the past, especially if those trips were 500 miles or less.

No, it's because the airlines have been flying at, or near, capacity for quite awhile now.

It's only "news" because news directors are accustomed to sending some schmo to the airport every Wednesday and Sunday to report on the "huge" crowds. Never mind the reports they themselves have done for the past million years about these "crowds."

There are some exceptions, such as this being DEN's first Thanksgiving with WN in the house, but that's a far minority instance of things. Even the newsies didn't have anything of significance to report.

Of course, Pattie Ahlstrom will pat himself on the back because he made the PR tours with all the media outlets.

Purely anectodal data points:

I flew on both Tuesday and Wednesday, 2 segments each day.

No bump opportunities, and my last segment was zeroed out due to 2 flight cancellations earlier. My flight wasn't even over or even full after that happened.

UA agent told me loads were really light out of PHX on Wed, traditionally a very busy day.

AC AAgent told me the same thing at DFW on Tuesday.

Again, purely anecdotal data.