Methodology

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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.

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