Holiday Travel Trends: Which Airlines and Destinations Are Soaring — and Which Are Struggling

Updated: October 16, 2025, 1:37pm CDT

Edited by:

Jump to Section

Table of Contents

This Season’s Air Travel Trends at a Glance
Final Thoughts

We may be compensated when you click on product links, such as credit cards, from one or more of our advertising partners. Terms apply to the offers below. See our Advertising Policy for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone.

A new report from aviation analytics firm Cirium offers fresh insights into travel trends for this holiday season.

The report covers holiday bookings for November and December, airline seat availability, and December 2025 seat growth to specific destinations compared to 2024, among other topics.

There’s a lot of interesting data to look at, so let’s dive right in.

This Season’s Air Travel Trends at a Glance

First, let’s examine the bookings made so far for the holiday season, which spans November and December. Cirium’s database of bookings encompasses all fare classes, offering a glimpse into the direction the market is heading.

For the Thanksgiving period — November 26 to 30, 2025 — bookings are up 2.2% when compared to the equivalent period last year, November 27 to December 1, 2024.

Christmas-week bookings are also up, though only slightly at 0.68%, for December 20 to 27, 2025, when compared to December 21 to 28, 2024.

Airport Crowd — This holiday season will be a busy one for travelers. Image Credit: Rudy and Peter Skitterians via Pixabay

This data includes domestic and international tickets in all fare classes booked on U.S. airlines, including Avelo and Breeze, from June 30 to October 8 of each year. Note that the information is gleaned from online travel agencies (OTAs) and Global Distribution System (GDS) data, not from airlines themselves.

Now, let’s look at the numbers regarding total seat numbers provided by airlines for Thanksgiving, which is defined as November 26 to 30, 2025, compared to November 27 to December 1, 2024. Cirium predicts that an additional 250,000 seats will be available in the market for this holiday season compared to last year. This figure corresponds with a 2% growth rate across all airlines.

Spirit Airlines logged a decline of a whopping 239,000 seats, which is no surprise given the airline’s bankruptcy.

Spirit Airlines A320 plane at gate BOS airport — Image Credit: Ryan Smith

Avelo, Sun Country, and Delta are also reducing the number of seats they offer, although Delta is showing only a modest decrease.

Next up is a look at seat numbers for December 2025 compared to December 2024 for certain domestic and international markets for U.S. carriers. Domestically, Florida remains a popular destination, boasting a 4.4% increase in seats compared to 2024. Arizona also shows positive growth at 1.8%. On the flip side, California and Nevada are down 2.5% and 5.5%, respectively.

For international destinations, Aruba has seen available seats pop by 12.6% compared to December of last year, the Dominican Republic has seen impressive growth of 8%, and seats to Costa Rica have increased 7.8%. In Europe, Ireland, Italy, and Spain have posted impressive growth.

Hot Tip:

Are you traveling by air this holiday season? Make sure you’re prepared with these 22 holiday travel tips that will help you navigate busy airports with ease.

Final Thoughts

Cirium, an aviation analytics company, has provided some interesting insights for the holiday travel season this year.

Despite economic uncertainty, bookings for holiday travel are up year-over-year, and airlines are generally offering more seats than last year in many domestic and international markets. All signs point to a busy Thanksgiving travel period this year, so remember to pack your patience!