Flight bookings for Thanksgiving and Christmas are up from 2024

Thanksgiving and Christmas journey is ready to shatter data this 12 months, in response to new knowledge.

Booking knowledge from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, signifies that the variety of reservations made between June 20 and Oct. 8 for journey in the course of the two main vacation intervals is up in comparison with the identical time final 12 months. Bookings for Thanksgiving journey are 2% increased, whereas bookings for journey round Christmastime are up roughly 1% in comparison with 2024.

That’s in line with expectations from main airways.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby in September stated 2025 was shaping as much as be a busy vacation journey season. 

“The entire fourth quarter, the fall break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, they’re all likely to set records with strong demand,” Kirby advised CBS News final month. “At the beginning of July, it was like a light switch got flipped on and demand started to come back.”

Kirby famous that Thanksgiving and Christmas reservations have “further accelerated” demand for flights, which he sees as a robust indicator that the economic system is in good condition. 

Delta Air Lines can be “expecting the holidays to be great,” CEO Ed Bastian stated on the corporate’s third quarter earnings name final week.

Cirium analyzed knowledge from on-line journey businesses and different sources. The evaluation tracks with airways’ notion of shopper demand, too. 

Airlines have added almost half 1,000,000 extra seats for the Thanksgiving journey interval in contrast with final 12 months to accommodate what it anticipates can be an uptick in demand for flights. 

For instance, Southwest and American Airlines every added nicely over 100,000 extra seats for Thanksgiving.

The authorities is at present shut down, nonetheless, as the vacations strategy, elevating issues concerning the sorts of points airline passengers may face at airports if a lapse in funding persists. 

While aviation consultants advised CBS News that air journey stays protected in the course of the shutdown, they famous that workers shortages at some airports throughout the U.S. may result in extra delays than typical for passengers.

When important personnel, together with air visitors controllers name out sick, for instance, the FAA takes steps to decelerate air visitors to maintain the skies protected.