Holiday Rush: The Airports With the Biggest Traffic Surge During the Holiday Season
As the holidays approach, a new data study examines exactly which U.S. airports and states face the most extreme passenger surges during the Thanksgiving and winter holidays. To map the holiday travel rush, researchers at luxury travel booking platform Luxury Link analyzed TSA passenger screening data to track daily traffic changes across 400 U.S. airports and all 50 states.
Holiday Rush: The Airports With the Biggest Traffic Surge During the Holiday Season
Photo Credit: AnnaStills / Shutterstock
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, aging aviation infrastructure, and critical funding gaps, the Airport Infrastructure Grant (AIG) program has provided $14.5 billion in funding over five years to support terminal expansions, baggage system upgrades, runway enhancements, and air traffic infrastructure improvements. As air travel remains near record highs—including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening nearly 3.1 million passengers in a single day in November of 2025—these investments will help airports better handle surges in traffic during the busy holiday season.
To better understand which airports are most impacted during the winter holidays, researchers at Luxury Link—an online booking platform specializing in luxury travel—analyzed the latest data from TSA.
Here are the key takeaways from the analysis:
- Holiday flight passenger volumes reached historic highs in 2025. Average daily passenger traffic during the holiday season exceeded 2.53 million, 8.2% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
- Small regional airports experience the most dramatic passenger surges during the holiday travel rush. Daily passenger traffic at nonhub nonprimary airports spikes by 15.1% over the holidays.
- Delaware leads the nation in airport passenger growth during the holiday season. The state sees a massive 49.1% increase in daily passenger traffic over the holiday months.
- Major U.S. airports in warm-weather tourist destinations experience the highest passenger surges. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) tops the list of large hubs with a 26.1% increase in daily passenger traffic over the holidays.
How Has Commercial Flight Demand Recovered After the Pandemic?
Average daily flight passenger traffic has surpassed COVID lows but is showing signs of slowing down
Source: Luxury Link analysis of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data
Air travel has rebounded significantly since the sharp declines of 2020, with average daily passenger traffic now exceeding 2019 levels. According to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data, daily passenger volume during the 2019 holiday season—the periods surrounding Thanksgiving and the winter holidays—averaged more than 2.3 million. That figure plunged to under 1 million in 2020 amid widespread travel restrictions. As those restrictions eased, air travel steadily recovered, reaching over 2.4 million daily passengers during the 2023 holiday season—surpassing 2019 levels. By 2025, holiday travel climbed even higher, averaging more than 2.5 million daily passengers.
Non-holiday passenger traffic has followed a similar trajectory. While average daily traffic approached 2.4 million in 2025—surpassing 2024 levels—2026 non-holiday traffic is now on pace to log its first decline since 2020, dropping nearly 3% year-over-year. This downturn coincides with the U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran, which has triggered a spike in jet fuel prices and forced commercial airlines to raise airfares. With elevated ticket costs already weighing on general passenger volumes, the upcoming holiday season will serve as a critical test of whether travelers are willing to absorb these higher prices.
What Types of Airports Are the Busiest During the Holiday Season?
Although traffic rises across the board, the smallest local airports see the biggest surges over Thanksgiving and the winter holidays
Source: Luxury Link analysis of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data
During the Thanksgiving and winter holiday seasons of 2025, the smallest airports experienced the largest increases in daily passenger traffic compared to non-holiday periods. Large hub airports saw a 6.2% rise in average daily traffic during the holidays, while medium hubs increased by 5.0%. Small hub and nonhub primary airports experienced similar traffic increases during the holiday season with 5.4% and 4.5% gains, respectively. However, the most dramatic growth occurred at nonhub nonprimary airports—the smallest commercial service category by annual enplanements—which recorded a 15.1% increase in daily passenger traffic during the holiday season. Air traffic at smaller airports tends to be more volatile, meaning year-to-year percentage changes can appear larger even when absolute passenger volumes remain relatively low.
Which States See the Biggest Airport Traffic Surges During the Holidays?
Delaware sees the most flight passenger growth over the Thanksgiving and winter holidays, while traffic declines in Maine and Wyoming
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. In 2025, states with major tourist destinations and warmer climates—such as Florida (+13.8%) and Arizona (+9.4%)—recorded some of the largest increases in daily passenger traffic during the holiday season. Some states with popular ski towns like Colorado and Idaho also saw notable gains of 11.1%, likely reflecting a mix of tourism and family gatherings during that period.
At the other end of the spectrum, colder and less accessible states such as Maine (-25.7%), Alaska (-17.4%), Vermont (-11.7%), and Wyoming (-10.6%) experienced the steepest declines, where peak summer tourism destinations give way to harsher winter weather and fewer tourist arrivals. Notably, Delaware stands out as a massive outlier, logging a 49.1% traffic increase as residents and nearby "snowbirds" depart for warmer winter climates. Because the state’s only commercial airport, Wilmington (ILG), expanded its terminal in January 2026, this upcoming winter will be the first real test of its new capacity.
At the individual airport level, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) tops the list of large hub airports with a 26.1% increase, while airports in other warm, tourist destinations like Miami International Airport (MIA) and Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) both saw traffic increases of over 10%. Further north, the New York City area presents a sharp contrast in how its three major airports handle the seasonal rush. Newark (EWR) saw a 14.1% jump by absorbing the region's massive surge in domestic holiday hub traffic. In contrast, JFK (+4.3%) and LaGuardia (-1.2%) saw little to no holiday boost, as JFK relies on steadier international routes and LaGuardia loses its primary base of corporate commuters. For inbound leisure travelers confronting peak flight pricing, managing the overall cost of a winter visit often hinges on ground-level flexibility—such as flying mid-week or monitoring seasonal lodging deals to offset steeper airfares.
Below are the top and bottom 15 large hub airports and states ranked by holiday traffic changes. For more detailed information, see the methodology section. For complete results, see the original report on Luxury Link: Holiday Rush: The Airports With the Biggest Traffic Surge During the Holiday Season
Largest Holiday Air Travel Surges by Airport
Largest Holiday Air Travel Surges by State
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 2025 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 Christmas through January 2nd of the next year. Only airports with daily operations during the holiday periods were included in the final airport lists, airports missing data in 3 or more days during either holiday period were omitted, and each airport’s average daily passenger traffic for the rest of the year excluded days without operations. As a result, the statistics reflect average passenger volumes on days when flights occurred, providing a more accurate representation of typical airport activity.
For complete results, see Holiday Rush: The Airports With the Biggest Traffic Surge During the Holiday Season on Luxury Link.
Originally published on luxurylink.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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