There has been a significant increase in North American air travel capacity over the 2024 Thanksgiving holiday, in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. According to data from IBA, an aviation market intelligence and advisory company, scheduled seats to, from and within North America from 28th November to 1st December 2024 have reached 13,838,608. This represents a 3% increase from 13,416,295 over the same period in 2023, and a notable 9% rise compared to the pre-pandemic total of 12,671,619 in 2019.
According to IBA Insight, IBA’s data and analytics platform, airlines’ Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) have risen by 3% year-on-year, increasing from 26,872 million last Thanksgiving, to 27,778 million in 2024.
While flight numbers have reduced 1% this year in comparison to 2019 – from 98,213 to 97,107 – this reflects the industry’s ongoing shift towards higher-capacity aircraft to meet the robust recovery in passenger demand, as reflected in the higher number of seats and increased ASK levels.
IBA Insight also reveals that domestic North American flights dominate the Thanksgiving travel period, accounting for 81% of all scheduled seats, and totalling 11,173,231 seats.
When including intra-North American international flights, this figure increases to 12,292,825 seats, representing 89% of total capacity. IBA Insight calculates that the remaining 11% is attributed to international flights between North America and Europe, Latin America, and other regions, which remain consistent with levels seen in previous years.
The ‘big four’ carriers in the USA continue to lead Thanksgiving travel, collectively providing 65% of scheduled seats. American Airlines holds the top spot with 2.46 million seats, followed closely by Southwest Airlines with 2.28 million, Delta Air Lines with 2.25 million, and United Airlines with 2.05 million.
Additional contributors include Alaska Airlines with 570,000 seats, and both Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines, with 540,000 scheduled seats each.
