Thanksgiving week draws major airport crowds every year, and the trend keeps climbing. The Sunday after Thanksgiving 2025 set a new all-time record for U.S. airport screenings — so if history is any guide, Thanksgiving 2026 could be just as crowded, if not more so.
But some days within Thanksgiving week are significantly busier on the roads and at airports than others. If you can be flexible with scheduling, you'll save money and avoid chaos.
The best and worst days to fly around Thanksgiving
NerdWallet analyzed checkpoint travel numbers from 2021 to 2025 provided by the Transportation Security Administration, which tracks the number of passengers screened daily at U.S. airport checkpoints.
For the period from the Thursday before to the Thursday after Thanksgiving, the data shows that the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the most crowded day to fly, by a wide margin. Meanwhile, the least crowded travel day at airports during that time period is Thanksgiving Day itself.
Here are the three least-crowded days to travel both before and after Thanksgiving, ranked from least to most crowded. Because they're less crowded and likely less expensive, it makes them some of the best days to fly around Thanksgiving.
Pre-holiday:
- Saturday before (least crowded).
- Monday before.
- Thursday before.
Post-holiday:
- Wednesday after (least crowded).
- Tuesday after.
- Black Friday.
Why flying the Sunday after Thanksgiving is so terrible
The Sunday after Thanksgiving is pretty much the worst day of the year to fly. In each of the last five years analyzed (2021–2025), it was the single busiest day of Thanksgiving week at U.S. airports, based on TSA passenger data. That crowding has only intensified year over year.
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2025 (Nov. 30), more than 3.13 million people passed through U.S. airport security checkpoints, marking a new all-time record. That broke the previous record set just five months earlier, on Sunday, June 22, 2025 (nearly 3.1 million), which had itself broken the record set the year before, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2024 (just over 3.09 million).
The record for the single busiest airport day in U.S. history has now been broken multiple times within about a year and a half, and a Thanksgiving Sunday has claimed the title twice. If travel demand keeps growing at this pace, don't be surprised if the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2026 breaks the record yet again.
The smarter, cheaper Thanksgiving weekend itinerary
If you work a standard Monday to Friday workweek with two days off for the holiday, then leaving Wednesday after work and flying home on Sunday can make sense. Most people follow this schedule to avoid taking extra time off. But this itinerary could cost you more money, because the busiest days to fly are usually the most expensive, too.
So how can you choose a better Thanksgiving travel itinerary to save money? Avoid the Wednesday-to-Sunday itinerary and try these travel days instead.
Travel on Thanksgiving Day
Across travel days for the week before and after Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day was the lowest-traffic day every single year in our analysis. In 2025, just under 1.56 million people were screened at airports on Thanksgiving Day. That's less than half of the roughly 3.13 million screened two days later, which was the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
If you do travel on Thanksgiving Day, book the first flight out that morning. That's a practice NerdWallet recommends anyway to reduce your odds of a flight delay, since morning flights are generally less prone to cancellations and delays than evening ones. You might even land in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
Stay longer
Consider extending your trip. The Wednesday after Thanksgiving is, on average, the least busy day to travel post-holiday, among the days we looked at in our analysis. Especially if you can work remotely, you might be able to avoid taking vacation days, despite the longer trip.
Fly on Black Friday
If you must travel during the weekend, consider having Thanksgiving dinner at your own home, then flying somewhere on Black Friday, which is consistently the third-least crowded day in the days we analyzed. Look at it as a great way to not only avoid airport crowds but also retail crowds since you won't be out shopping.
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