TSA Prepares for 2024 Holiday Surge: The Three Busiest Days Revealed

It’s no secret that the number of travelers at the airport increases during the Christmas season. However, according to the TSA, visitors are expected to increase 6.2% this year compared to last year. The agency expects to screen nearly 40 million people between December 19 and January 2.

At least as early as October, higher year-over-year traveler numbers were predicted when Expedia’s Holiday Travel Outlook reported that searches for international Christmas trips were up 20% compared to 2023.

The upcoming spike follows the TSA’s busiest day ever. Dec. 1 entered the agency’s history books for screening more than 3 million people at U.S. airports as travelers wrapped up their Thanksgiving holiday.

The busiest holiday days in 2024

According to the TSA, many of these 40 million travelers will pass through U.S. terminals on three key dates: December 20, December 27 and December 30.

TSA spokesman Mark Howell told Skift that the holiday represents a slight change compared to other busy – but far shorter – holidays in the U.S. such as Labor Day weekend.

Although the longer December holiday period will be busier year-over-year compared to last year, “the Christmas and New Year holidays don’t put as much strain on everyday life because the volume is more spread out,” he said.

For that reason, Howell doesn’t expect the TSA to hit a daily passenger volume record, but “we’ll probably have a record over the holiday season.”

Howell noted that between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. is typically a peak time for TSA checkpoints and some additional wait times can be expected. However, he said the goal is 30 minutes or less for standard screenings and 15 minutes or less for TSA PreCheck passengers. To handle the additional holiday traffic, the TSA has added new security lanes, new screening technology, more K9 units and additional staff.

Airlines and airportS Plan for Holiday Peak

American Airlines expects nearly 12.7 million passengers to fly more than 118,000 flights during the winter holiday season, which it defines as the period from December 18 to January 6. Similar to TSA forecasts, it expects December 27th to be its busiest travel day, with December 20th being its second busiest peak during the holiday season.

United expects 9.9 million travelers to travel between December 19 and January 6, up 12% year over year. This continues the record-breaking number of travelers compared to other typically busy holiday travel periods in the US such as Memorial Day and July 4th. It plans to operate around 4,500 flights per day, with almost 500 additional daily flights added to accommodate the more than 540,000 people traveling daily with the airline during this period.

Air Canada, meanwhile, expects the peak of the festive season, which runs from mid-December to January 6, to be December 19-23. According to the airline, 2.2 million travelers will board one of up to 1,000 daily flights on its three airlines (Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express).

London’s Heathrow Airport has declared Christmas Day itself a record celebration this year, with the number of passengers passing through its terminals expected to be 21% higher than traffic on December 25, 2023. This follows the busiest November last month with 6.5 million passengers passing through the terminals – around 1.5 million of whom were flying to or arriving in North America.

Travel volumes continue to recover post-pandemic

It’s not just holiday traffic that is affected by higher travel volumes. At Heathrow, 2024 is expected to surpass the 2023 total of 79 million passengers.

According to the TSA, this is part of a pattern of increased travel following the pandemic. “That’s been the case overall this year: volume has increased exceptionally, particularly on holiday weekends,” Howell said.

While there may be a chance for TSA screeners to catch their breath as January progresses, it’s likely that we’ll continue to see a surge in air travel throughout 2025.

Delta executives recently said they expect the airline to post higher revenue next year, driven by a strong economy and increased travel demand, particularly for premium and international travel.

“I hate to talk about the pandemic, but there are just a lot of people traveling right now,” Howell adds. “People who want to travel are confident – ​​they just go out and travel more.”

Although the TSA — and the airlines — expected a post-pandemic recovery, “we see it year after year,” Howell said. “It’s good for the industry and it’s good for everyone when there is continued growth.”