Minimizing Construction Impacts During a Historic Holiday Air-Travel Season

With preliminary data from TSA indicating that the Sunday following Thanksgiving 2024 was the single busiest day for air travel in American history, it’s safe to say that commercial air travel has recovered from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. While traffic throughout the remainder of the holiday season will likely be a bit more spread out than in the days around Thanksgiving, U.S. airports are nonetheless gearing up for heavy traffic through Christmas and New Years.  

For major airports that are currently undergoing significant improvement projects, minimizing disruptions from construction activities during this busy holiday time represents a unique challenge. This is particularly true for high-priority redevelopment projects like JFK’s New Terminal One that cannot stop work during these peak travel weeks. Our project management team onsite at JFK plays an instrumental role in helping minimize disruptions to the traveling public so these important efforts can stay on-schedule with minimal disruptions even during peak travel times.  

The dynamic nature of construction throws a proverbial wrench in the meticulously planned and orchestrated world of airport operations. While many airport redevelopment projects issue construction moratoriums around summer and winter holidays, JFK (now in its third holiday season under construction) is instead taking a more nuanced approach, phasing higher-disruption activities around peak travel times and scheduling major deliveries during off hours. Careful planning and scheduling can help ensure that disruptions do not coincide with peak travel times – and fortunately, airport officials are usually good at forecasting traffic.  

Another important consideration when continuing construction activities during peak times is communication. Our team coordinates with JFK airport officials and their communications consultants to ensure any construction impacts can be clearly communicated to passengers across a variety of channels – from signage to email and social media. The communications team needs accurate and relevant information with as much advanced notice as possible, so our teams carefully review the schedule and coordinate with vendors to ensure the right information is being shared so travelers know what to expect.  

Cumming Group is proud to work on projects like JFK Airport’s New Terminal One project that have a meaningful impact on the communities they will benefit. In particular, our aviation teams have helped deliver airport redevelopments like Portland’s PDX, NYC’s La Guardia, and soon the highly anticipated New Terminal One at JFK.