Holiday travel is upon us and like many people around the world, we may be flying home to visit family or head out on a vacation. According to AAA, they predict that this years holiday season will be the busiest ever for air travel, with 7.5 million people projected to fly between Dec. 23 to Jan. 1.
Travelers this season are paying about 3% more for flights, according to Hopper. the average round domestic trip ticket costs about $350.
Prices can also go up if you are traveling on the busiest days, which are Dec. 22 and Dec. 26. If you are wanting to save a little money, the cheapest days to fly fall on Dec. 19, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
United Airlines said it expects its busiest-ever holiday travel season, with about 9 million passengers planning to fly from Dec. 21 to Jan. 8. This is a 12% jump from last year.Delta Air Lines is preparing for nearly 9 million customers during its holiday travel period, which runs from Dec. 21 to Jan. 7.American Airlines also expects a busy holiday period with more than 12 million customers forecast to fly with the airline from Dec. 20 to Jan. 8.
Now if we think about holiday travel last year we may remeber the Southwest Christmas meltdown. Thousands of flights were canceled during the busiest time of the year, but Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan told Bloomberg the carrier was ready for the busy holidays this year, admitting last year’s debacle “was an ugly week… But that week does not define Southwest Airlines.”
