These are the 10 airports to avoid if you're flying during Thanksgiving (AAL, DAL)
- More than 31.6 million Americans are expected to fly this Thanksgiving holiday season, according to Airlines for America. That's a 3.7% increase over 2018.
- American Airlines expects to carry seven million travelers this Thanksgiving season, while Delta expects to fly 3.2 million just during Thanksgiving week.
- The busiest day for air travel is expected to be Sunday, December 1.
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America will be traveling in big numbers this Thanksgiving.
It's estimated to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period since 2005, with more than 55 million Americans making a trip longer than 50 miles, according to the AAA. That's 1.6 million more than last year, a nearly 2.9 percent increase.
Nearly 32 million of those are expected to fly, according to Airlines for America (A4A), an industry trade group, a 3.7 percent jump from 2018.
American Airlines alone said it expects to operate 74,396 flights and fly more than 7.4 million passengers during the 12 day period between November 22 and December 3.
Delta expects to carry 3.2 million passengers between Monday, November 25 and Sunday, December 1.
To accommodate the extra traffic, US airlines are adding an average of 859 flights per day, according to A4A, averaging 108,000 seats added per day.
During the travel period, the busiest days are expected to be Sunday, December 1 — with 3.1 million passengers expected, a new single-day record — followed by Wednesday, November 27 — 2.98 million passengers — and Friday, November 22 — 2.96 million.
Unsurprisingly, the lightest day for air travel is expected to be Thanksgiving Day, with 1.79 million passengers.
As a result, airports around the country are going to be packed to the gills — even more 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 more than 107 million passengers.
Los Angeles International or LAX was the second-busiest airport in the US and the fourth busiest in the world — up from being the fifth busiest the previous year — with just over 87.5 million travelers. Chicago's O'Hare International came in third place in the US and sixth place worldwide with more than 83.2 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.
SEE ALSO: The 8 US airlines people like and hate the most
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