It’s almost Memorial Day, the start of summer travel, and we’re ready for takeoff.

Not so fast. This holiday travel launch will likely exceed even pre-pandemic levels, industry experts say; they are predicting 10 million passengers over the extended weekend nationwide. This means that airline executives as well as passengers themselves need to be ready to head off avoidable problems.

For its part, the federal government has signaled its preparations to avert a repeat of last summer’s disastrous meltdown at airports nationally, with widespread delays and cancellations. The Transportation Security Administration reports it’s staffing up to manage long security-check lines.

This week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his agency has been hiring and training new air traffic controllers to address a shortage that was part of the problems in summer 2022. But hiring is not expected to hit targets for the start of this summer, so it’s likely that some of the old problems will recur.

That means airlines have to be geared up to comb out the inevitable tangles of customer service. And let the buyer beware common travel pitfalls as well. In an arena expected to be crowded and frustrating, maintaining calm progress through the confusion will require personal responsibility and good planning by travelers.

In December, Southwest Airlines and its passengers across the mainland suffered an especially bad meltdown, due to winter storms and outdated scheduling software. And travelers departing Hawaii are still reeling from one of the most recent airport messes. DR Fortress, a third-party data center used by Hawaiian Airlines, failed on May 12, which left the carrier unable to dispatch flights for about four hours. That had a domino effect because the delays resulted in some crew members exhausting their maximum working hours, which in turn meant the airline didn’t have the crews to work some flights.

The issues persisted into the next day. The fallout? A lot of unhappy passengers, with the airline scrambling, as an airline information officer said, “to get people where they need to go and make things right.”

Hawaiian Air has had no residual issues from the internet outage, said Alex Da Silva, director of external communications. In preparation for the high season, he said, the airline has added capacity to several routes, including Austin, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Pago Pago.

”We are fully staffed at airports and our customer contact centers to support travelers this upcoming weekend and over the summer,” Da Silva added.

Airlines have not fully recovered from the disruptions caused by COVID-19 when, in Hawaii in particular, the industry shut down. In 2022 a shortage of pilots was at the heart of a chaotic Memorial Day weekend. The shortage persists, though it has eased after concerted recruitment and retention efforts.

But staffing up is a gradual process overall — a shortage of airline mechanics reportedly has been developing — so there could be new weak links in travel operations this year. Whether various carriers have done enough to meet this summer’s challenges satisfying passengers remains to be seen.

Some companies have put special focus on customer outreach. Delta Airlines has reconstituted its legacy “Red Coats” customer service squad that aims to troubleshoot problems more quickly than the harried standard agent. That’s worth watching as a model other airlines can adopt.

For their part, travelers should follow advisories to check in online, use airlines’ mobile apps, arrive early at the airport, study unfamiliar airport layouts in advance and in general plan ahead and keep their cool.

“This weekend will be a test of the system,” Secretary Buttigieg said.

In a few days Americans will see whether it scores a pass or fail.