As the holiday season approaches, millions of travelers are preparing to pack their bags and head to the skies, making this one of the busiest times of the year for air travel. Airports across the United States experience a significant surge in passenger traffic, with some hubs seeing more dramatic increases than others. Whether travelers are visiting family, heading for a vacation, or flying for business, the peak holiday season creates a challenge for both airports and airlines to manage the spike in demand.
In response to rising air travel demand, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced $289 million in grants to 129 airports across 40 states. Funded under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, these grants will support terminal expansions, baggage system upgrades, runway enhancements, and air traffic infrastructure improvements. As air travel hits record highs—including the TSA screening nearly 3 million passengers in a single day in June—these investments will help airports better handle surges in traffic during the busy holiday season.
Average Daily Flight Passenger Traffic Recovery After the Pandemic
Source: Luxury Link analysis of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data
Air travel has rebounded significantly since the sharp decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with average daily passenger traffic now exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Based on Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data, daily passenger traffic during the 2019 holiday season—or the periods surrounding Thanksgiving and winter holidays—averaged nearly 2.3 million, but TSA throughput dropped dramatically to just less than 1 million in 2020. As restrictions eased, air travel slowly recovered, and by 2023, daily passengers reached nearly 2.5 million—surpassing 2019 levels.
Non-holiday passenger traffic has followed a similar trend, with 2023’s daily average of over 2.3 million passengers also exceeding the 2019 figure. With 2024 non-holiday traffic already averaging just under 2.5 million, this holiday season is shaping up to be one of the busiest in recent memory.
Change in Airport Traffic During the Holiday Season by Airport Size
Source: Luxury Link analysis of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data
During the Thanksgiving and winter holiday seasons, larger airports see the most significant increases in daily passenger traffic compared to non-holiday periods. Based on 2022 and 2023 data, large hub airports experience a 7.2% increase in daily traffic, while medium hubs follow closely with a 6.2% rise. Smaller airports see more modest increases, with small hubs rising by 4.5%, nonhub primary airports growing by just 1.5%, and nonhub nonprimary airports—the smallest airport commercial service category by annual enplanements—actually experience a 6.8% decrease during the holidays.
Change in Airport Traffic During the Holiday Season by State
Source: Luxury Link analysis of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data
Holiday air traffic patterns vary significantly across different states, with some regions experiencing far greater surges in daily passenger throughput than others. States with major tourist destinations and warmer climates, such as Florida (+12.7%) and Arizona (+10.9%), see some of the largest surges in daily passenger traffic during the holiday season. Similarly, states like North Dakota (+11.8%) and Kansas (+10.5%) experience notable increases, potentially due to their smaller airports handling a disproportionate amount of local and regional holiday traffic. In contrast, colder and less accessible states like Maine (-26.0%) and Alaska (-17.0%) see declines, as fewer travelers venture to these destinations during the winter months.
Delaware stands out as an outlier, with an 83.1% increase in daily passenger traffic, driven by the operations of its only commercial airport, Wilmington Airport (ILG). Delaware’s traffic fluctuations have been skewed by the departure of Frontier Airlines in 2022 and the introduction of Avelo Airlines in 2023, leading to a dramatic change in the state’s seasonality.
At the individual airport level, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International (FLL) tops the list of large hub airports with a 16.3% increase, while airports in other warm, tourist destinations like Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) in Hawaii and Tampa International (TPA) both see traffic increases of over 12%. On the other hand, Harry Reid International (LAS) in Las Vegas experiences a 4.3% decline in holiday traffic, the largest decrease among large hub airports.
Below is a breakdown of the top and bottom ranked large hub, medium hub, and small hub U.S. airports for airport traffic changes during the holiday season. The analysis was conducted by Luxury Link—an online booking platform specializing in luxury travel— using data from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). For complete results, see the full report Holiday Rush: The Airports with the Biggest Surge in Traffic During the Holiday Season on Luxury Link.
Large Hub Airports with the Biggest Surge in Airport Traffic During the Holiday Season
Medium Hub Airports with the Biggest Surge in Airport Traffic During the Holiday Season
Small Hub Airports with the Biggest Surge in Airport Traffic During the Holiday Season
Methodology
Photo Credit: AnnaStills / Shutterstock
The data in this analysis come from the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) FOIA Electronic Reading Room. Researchers ranked airports and states by the percentage change in the daily passenger traffic during the holiday season compared to the rest of the year. For the purposes of this analysis, the holiday season was aligned to national flight traffic trends and considered to be the Thanksgiving holiday—the Friday prior to Thanksgiving through the Monday after—and the winter holiday period—the Friday before the full week leading up to Christmas through January 2nd of the next year. To avoid distortion from the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, calculations were based on the average of 2022 and 2023 data.
For complete results, see Holiday Rush: The Airports With the Biggest Traffic Surge During the Holiday Season on Luxury Link.
