What do your holiday plans look like? Chances are good they involve one of three possibilities:
- Maybe you’ll join the throngs of Americans descending on airports and train and bus stations, traveling far and wide.
- Maybe you’ll be among the millions more who hit the open road, driving at least 50 miles or more.
- Maybe you’ll stay close to home, but spend time hosting people or visiting others for holiday cheer.
That’s the statistical probability, anyway, given that an estimated 90 percent of Americans reportedly celebrate Christmas, including both those for whom religion plays a big part and those who just take advantage of the entire U.S. slowing down for a week or more.
Regardless of where you land, United Airlines just announced a new statistic that will color a lot of people’s holiday experiences.
It’s promising news, both for the airline and for the many travelers among us. It also points to great news for businesses of all kinds.
In short, United Airlines says it expects its “busiest holiday travel period ever,” with as many as 9.9 million passengers flying United during this year’s holiday period.
A few other details:
- United says nearly 520,000 people will fly with the airline every day during the year-end holiday period, which adds up to “62,000 more people per day than last year.”
- The biggest expected travel days will be Friday, December 20; Friday, December 27; and Saturday, December 28 — although the surge will average about 20,000 people per day more than the overall average.
- United says it’s flying 4,500 flights per day and has added almost 500 more daily flights to keep up with demand.
Here’s David Kinzelman, United’s chief customer officer:
Even as the number of travelers grows, our operational performance and customer scores are at their highest level in years.
United is ready for the holidays — our teams on the ground and in the air look forward to delivering a great experience and we’ve added even more easy-to-use features to our app to help our customers stay informed and save time.
Other airlines predict big seasons too: American Airlines says it expects 12.7 million passengers, and Delta Air Lines says it expects nine million.
But, two things stand out to me about the United Airlines announcement.
The first is that it follows big numbers at United for Thanksgiving. The second has to do with a quirk of the calendar.
In short, with Christmas on a Wednesday, the holiday travel period itself simply lasts more days than in most years.
For example, United Airlines says it starts today — December 19, which is a full six days before Christmas, and lasts until January 6, the Monday after New Year’s Day.
(The other airlines’ announcements put different dates on the whole holiday period, so I suppose your mileage may vary.)
Another quirk of the calendar: Hanukkah begins on the same day as Christmas this year.
Anyway, a big uptick in travel is obviously good news for United Airlines.
As long as the industry doesn’t run into any massive computer or weather-related delays, as in past years (remember how Southwest Airlines had to pay passengers a $140 million civil penalty and $600 million in refunds after operational failures that canceled 16,900 flights and stranded more than two million passengers over the 2022 Christmas holiday?), it’s probably good news for the rest of us as well.
Even if you wind up stuck in a middle seat, keep in mind that the volume of holiday travel is often a barometer for how robustly the economy will perform in the new year.
That’s yet another reason to celebrate.
