Air travel during this pandemic Thanksgiving

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is offering COVID-19 tests for a fee, and people can expect results within 24 hours. Photo by Amy Ta/KCRW

Despite repeated public health warnings, more Americans are expected to fly for Thanksgiving than any time since the pandemic started. Anyone coming into California is supposed to quarantine for 14 days — unless they’re here for work or school.

Brian Sumers of the travel publication Skift says airlines are in a huge cash crunch. “They have taken on a ton of debt to get through this pandemic. … They need people to fly again. And it does seem like they're willing to say whatever they need to do to get people on their planes again.”

Los Angeles and Ontario airports also have on-site COVID-19 testing — for a fee. “There's been some thought in the industry that if we could just get testing ramped up, that would be the panacea to getting everybody on airplanes again,” says Sumers.