Travelers heading to O’Hare International and Midway airports this week can rest assured that a government shutdown-related national air traffic meltdown has been averted, airlines said.

Passengers can expect things to be mostly back to normal after a rocky period this fall, airlines said. Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration mandated flight cuts at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, including at O’Hare and Midway, leading to significant numbers of flight cancellations.

Thanksgiving weather: After mild and overcast start to the week, holiday will turn cold and blustery

The flight-cuts mandate came as the nation’s air traffic system dealt with shortages of controllers — who were working long hours without pay during the government shutdown.

The FAA is expecting the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in 15 years this year. More than 52,000 flights are expected to take off on Tuesday, Nov. 25, the peak travel day of the season.

With the shutdown over and the federal mandate lifted, “we’re not looking back,” Laura Mandile, United Airlines’ managing director of customer service for O’Hare, said in an interview last week. Thanksgiving travel bookings rose 15% the weekend after the government shutdown ended, United said.

The airline will average more than 500 departures a day from O’Hare during the Thanksgiving period.

Mandile recommends people flying during the busy Thanksgiving rush plan ahead. Typical holiday travel challenges remain, even if a worst-case scenario has been averted.

“Use your spidey sense,” Mandile said — especially when it comes to Chicago traffic on the way to the airport.

American Airlines, the second largest operator at O’Hare after United, said it plans to fly around 5,850 flights out of O’Hare during the two-week period around Thanksgiving. That’s close to 40% more departures than it flew during the same period last year as the airline has ramped up its schedule at O’Hare.

“With the FAA’s flight reduction order behind us, we know travelers flying into and out of ORD want confidence in their Thanksgiving travel plans — and they can count on American to deliver,” the airline’s vice president of O’Hare operations, Ben Humphrey, said in a statement.

Airlines have “rebounded in an impressive way,” said Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development. But, he said, “there’s still a wildcard factor that could throw a wrench into the system.”

Air traffic towers and centers around the country are “going to be pushed to the max,” because of the glut of air traffic during the Thanksgiving period, Schwieterman said.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union for air traffic workers, had been raising the alarm about chronic understaffing in the industry long before the shutdown this fall.

And because flights are departing jam-packed with passengers, it’s harder for airlines to turn flights around quickly, Schwieterman said. That means any delays can ripple throughout the system.

Weather-wise, Chicagoans can expect scattered rain Tuesday followed by a blustery cold front to roll in by midweek. Some snow is possible over the weekend, with possible travel impacts on Saturday, the National Weather Service said in a social media post. “It’s much too early to narrow down specific details with this system,” the NWS cautioned on X.

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