Photo: Business Wire

The busiest travel day of the year in the U.S. domestic market will be Sunday, November 26, 2023, according to a recent analysis by the world’s most trusted source of aviation analytics and airline schedules data, Cirium.

More than 3,000,000 seats and 22,000 flights will be flown domestically in the U.S. on that date, higher than peak travel days in summer 2023. The major U.S. carriers will fly 7% more seats during the Wednesday-Sunday of Thanksgiving week in 2023 compared to 2022. The data is sourced from Cirium’s Diio Mi Schedules System, widely used in aviation to analyze airline schedules for more than 1,300 airlines worldwide.

International travel figures also show strong growth during Thanksgiving week 2023 compared to 2022. Travel from the U.S. to Caribbean resort destinations by all carriers will increase by 14% on seats flown this Thanksgiving compared to last. Similarly, travel from the U.S. to Europe shows 12% more available seats flown.

In addition, recent third-party media reporting indicated weakness in bookings, with lower average prospective fares than in Q4 2022. Cirium’s historical fare data indicates that U.S. domestic airfares has been stable in 2023, with a peak average fare of $188 in August 2023, and the lowest average fare being $176 in March 2023.

In the U.S. domestic market, Cirium analysis of airfares for 2023, to-date, showed the average airfare for U.S. economy tickets was $182, one-way, non-directionally, not including taxes and fees. This compares to an average fare of $159 in 2022 for the same period. Accordingly, airfares are up 14% year over year.

The 11 major U.S. airlines have had strong operational performance in November 2023 (to November 16, 2023) with an average on-time performance of 86.28%. A flight is considered on-time when it arrives before 14:59 of its scheduled arrival time, commonly known in the airline industry as “A14.” November’s performance to date bodes well for travelers in the U.S. in advance of this coming Thanksgiving holiday period.