as they head to the airport today, pete. reporter: we ll see how this pans out, erica. you know, the tsa says it s anticipating 20 to 21 million people passengers at america s airports starting on the 23rd and lasting until january 3rd. in fact, united airlines predicts that today through next thursday will be its busiest period and that its air passenger traffic loads will be about 20% higher than what we saw during thanksgiving, which set pandemic era air travel records. the number yesterday, 2.06 million people at america s airports as the highest number we have seen since december 5th, really a sign that this holiday travel rush is kicking off a little bit early here. we will see how the rise in infections really impacts these numbers. airlines say they ve seen a bit of wavering in ticket bookings since the omicron variant started to make headlines. united airline s ceo scott kirby says cancellations have gone up a little bit, but not near as