Howard University Students Navigate Traveling For The Holidays After The Government Shutdown

With the holiday season closing in, Howard University students are joining college travelers nationwide in a race to secure flights home.

By Armani Durham

With the holiday season closing in, Howard University students are joining college travelers nationwide in a race to secure flights home, many booking tickets as early as the first weeks of November.

Haley Lucas, a student at DC-based Howard, is from Alaska but also travels to Tennessee to visit family during Thanksgiving and winter break. Lucas flies from Virginia, where Reagan National Airport (DCA) is located, to Tennessee to see her mother, and then to Alaska to visit her father.

“Every year, I count down the days until I get to go home because I just get so homesick,” Lucas said.

On Nov. 4, flights were stopped for approximately 90 minutes at DCA after a bomb threat was made against a United Airlines flight that was arriving at the airport. A few days after the threat was made, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reduced flight operations by up to 10% at high-traffic airports nationwide, including DCA.

The FAA reduced flights to ensure safety in the national airspace system as various airport employees worked without pay during the 43-day government shutdown that began on Oct. 1.

Despite the threat to DCA and the FAA’s reduction in flights, Howard students are determined to make it home in time for the holidays.

Jaiden Thomas, a Howard student, also has plans to travel to multiple states over the break. Thomas will fly from Virginia to Georgia to see her family and then from Georgia to Hawaii to see her boyfriend, who is in the Army.

If her flight were to be cancelled, like many others have experienced across the country, she would be “devastated.” Thomas does not have family in Washington, and her apartment, which she leased through Howard, requires her to leave for winter break.

“I would essentially…be displaced,” Thomas said.

Josiah Washington, another Howard student, feels comfortable with the process of flying out of DCA but worries about flying into the airport. Washington is visiting his family in Kentucky for a few days before returning to the district for work.

“I’m worried [about] coming back to D.C. rather than leaving,” Washington said. “I need to make sure I’m here so I can go to work and make money.”

In the midst of finishing finals, Howard students begin packing their suitcases in preparation for flights home for Thanksgiving and winter break. As they prepare, they are hopeful that they will make it home to their families and loved ones for the holidays without any flight complications.