Busiest airports and travel days during Thanksgiving 2018

An
American Airlines jet at Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport.
AP

• More than 30 million Americans are expected to fly this
  Thanksgiving holiday season
  according to Airlines For
  America.
• That’s a 5.7% increase over 2017.
• American Airlines expects to
  carry seven million travelers this Thanksgiving season while
  Delta Air Lines expects to
  fly 4.7 million passengers just during the week of
  Thanksgiving. 
• The busiest day for air travel is expected to be
  Monday, November 25.
• US airports are among the busiest in the
  world. 

America will be traveling in droves this Thanksgiving. An
estimated 30.6 million people are expected to fly
this Thanksgiving holiday period, industry trade group
Airlines For America (A4A)
said in a release. That’s up 5.7% from last year and a whopping
26% from 2010.

In fact, American Airlines, alone, expects to operate nearly
71,000 flights and fly more than seven million passengers during
the 12 day period between November 16 and November 27. 

Delta expects to carry 4.7 million holiday travelers between
November 19 and November 25. 

To accommodate all of this additional traffic, US airlines are
expected to make an additional 158,000 seats available every day
during the heavy travel period. Airlines will deploy additional
aircraft and schedule extra flights to ferry holiday travelers.

According to A4A, the busiest days for air travel during this
period is Monday, Nov. 25 followed by Wednesday, Nov. 21. 

If you’re looking to avoid the crowds, Thanksgiving day is going
to be least busy day by a wide margin. 

As a result, airports around the country are going to be packed
even more so than usual. Last year, five of the 20 busiest
airports in the world were located in the US. This included the
busiest airport in the world, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International which hosted nearly 104 million passengers. 

Read more: These are the 20 busiest airports
in the world.

Los Angeles International or LAX is the second busiest airport in
the US and the fifth busiest in the world with just under 85
million travelers. Chicago’s O’Hare International comes in third
place in the US and sixth place worldwide with nearly 80 million
passengers annually. 

To give you a better idea of which US airport will likely be the
most crowded, here’s a breakdown of the 10 busiest airports in
the US based on passenger numbers. 

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider