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.

Tags

As featured on