Industry trade group Airlines for America has released its 2014-2015 Winter Holiday Air Travel Forecast, predicting 45 million travelers will fly during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
That would represent a near 2% increase from last year, A4A said, with Friday, December 19 earmarked as a day to avoid traveling on.
This will be the busiest day of the holidays, with 2.5 million people expected to take to the skies, while airports will be least hectic on Wednesday, December 24; Thursday, December 25; Wednesday, December 31; and January 1, 2015.
The report classes the holidays as the 19-day period from Wednesday, December 17 through Sunday, January 4.
"We expect 45 million customers will travel onboard U.S. airlines over the holiday period, and airlines are adding seats to the marketplace to accommodate the increase in demand," said John Heimlich, A4A vice president and chief economist.
Daily passenger volumes will range from 2 million to 2.5 million during the holidays and planes are expected to be 80-90% full over the holidays with few last minute bargains to be found.
Busiest airports are likely to be Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago O’Hare.
