Dulles Airport, Va. - Amid dismal predictions about rising ticket prices and falling ridership, the airlines and air travel industry are taking steps to lure travelers back to the skies.

An estimated 24 million Americans are expected to fly this Thanksgiving, but many more have greeted news of falling gas prices with a decision to drive home for the holiday.

In hopes of making air travel more convenient, the TSA is trying to streamline their operations and introducing security check lanes for families. Additionally, in an announcement earlier this week, the president broadened a plan introduced last year that successfully opened up military flight lanes along the Atlantic to make room for commercial jets.

And locally, a new runway at Dulles Airport is being opened just in time for the holidays, the first addition of its kind at this airport since 1962, when the airport opened.

The large runway running north to south will help handle a large volume of air traffic, but it will also be able to shoulder larger loads, specifically the Airbus A380 2-level behemoth introduced at Dulles last year.

Other airports, like Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, which opened a new runway in 2006, report decreased delays and airline savings in the millions each week with the construction of new landing strips.

The new runway's $360 million price tag prompts some critics to argue that it may not be enough to ease the congestion at the airport because more taxiways from the terminal still need to be rebuilt.

Many, though, agree that the runway constitutes progress in battling air congestion, and it is just one of many expansion projects planned for the 46-year-old airport. Parking garages and concourse improvements, not to mention the much-anticipated Dulles Rail Public Transit System, are all expected to make airport operations more efficient.

Today the nation's air traffic system also welcomes two other new runways -- in Chicago and Seattle. The the one here is already being put to use. The first plane to taxi down was an American Airlines 737 bound for Los Angeles this morning.