The 3 busiest days to fly over the holidays

TTravelers, pack your patience. Airports will be more crowded during the holiday season this year as the TSA expects to screen nearly 40 million travelers at airport security checkpoints between Thursday, December 19, 2024 and Thursday, January 2, 2025 – an increase of more than 6% compared to the previous year.

The bulk of those trips will occur between Monday, Dec. 23, and Jan. 1, when 32.5 million seats are currently scheduled to fly out of U.S. airports, according to airfare tracking website Hopper.

Fa-La-La on Fridays

According to the TSA, peak passenger traffic is expected to fall on three key dates: Friday, December 20; Friday, December 27th; and Monday, December 30th.

American Airlines, which expects nearly 12.7 million passengers on 118,000 flights during the winter holiday season, expects Dec. 27 to be its busiest travel day, followed by Dec. 20.

If past is prologue, that means more delays and cancellations on these days. “Last year, the rate of flight disruptions on the two days after Christmas was almost twice as high as on Christmas Day,” says Hayley Berg, the company’s senior economist and author of Hopper’s 2024 Christmas Holiday Travel Outlook.

“Major U.S. airports such as Atlanta, Dallas Fort-Worth and Denver will be among the busiest, with over 1.3 million scheduled departing seats each,” Berg said. Unfortunately, all three airports experience a higher number of cancellations and delays at the start of the holiday season.

Don’t let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

The combination of additional flights and winter weather may cause travel disruption. Consider that, according to FAA data, about two-thirds of flight delays – 63% – are weather-related.

When it comes to flying in winter, advance warning is the order of the day. Three days before your flight, it’s a good idea to take a look at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Forecast Map, which will give you an overview of the weather today, tomorrow and the next day. On Friday – one of the busiest three days of the holiday season – NOAA’s forecast shows a clipper system bringing snow and mixed precipitation from the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes to the Northeast. It is highly likely that passengers flying on Friday will face delays and cancellations due to the inclement weather affecting 18 states.

On flight day, another way to detect early that a problem is brewing is to track your aircraft on FlightAware. Enter your flight information and then click “Where is my plane now?” Link directly under the flight number. You can see whether the plane is early, on time or behind schedule and act accordingly – even before the airline announces a delay or cancellation. This early notification can mean the difference between securing one of the few available seats on another flight or having to join the herd and accept the airline’s offer.

Rushing through the ranks of airport security

At most airports, mid-morning is the busiest time, with most major cities departing between 8am and 12pm. Still, Hopper recommends booking the first flight of the day if you can get it. “In general, flights departing after 9 a.m. are twice as likely to be delayed as flights scheduled between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m.,” Berg said. Additionally, there is often a domino effect where a delayed flight leads to a second and then a third flight.

To ensure you aren’t the one holding up airport security, remember to leave gifts unwrapped. “We know passengers travel with gifts, and that’s OK,” said Thomas Carter, the TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey. “However, we strongly recommend that gifts are not wrapped with paper and tape, but rather wrapped in gift bags or gift boxes with tissue paper. This way, if the item triggers an alarm, our staff can easily resolve the alarm without having to unwrap the gift.”