August 2nd 2024 was the busiest day ever for air travel, with 17,987,792 airline seats scheduled for that day. This in itself is an interesting fact, but what if we took it a step further to analyse the busiest day of the year, each year for the past 15 years to see what patterns might emerge? What insights can we gain about the busiest month and day of the week for flights, the busiest routes, airports and airlines? Read on to see what we've uncovered.

What Were The Busiest Days for Air Travel in Each of the the Past 15 Years?

August 2nd 2024 the busiest day ever (so far) for air travel, and in fact when we look at the schedules data, every one of the current top 10 - or even top 40! - busiest days ever for air travel fell in 2024. Reviewing the list of the biggest days for air travel 2009-2024, below, you'll see some patterns start to emerge. 

Almost all of the busiest annual days to fly have been in July or August, but, as you might expect, the 'exceptions to the rule' occurred in 2020 and 2021, when the global pandemic caused travel restrictions and a huge reduction in flight capacity. In 2020 capacity peaked on the 3rd of January, which was the last Friday before news of the Covid-19 virus started to emerge globally. Air travel was still largely off the cards for most of 2021, but with vaccination and testing programs gaining momentum, travel restrictions started to ease in some regions in the latter half of the year, and the busiest day was 17th December - the Friday before the start of the Christmas holidays.

What is the Busiest Day of the Year for Air Travel?

Each year for the past 16 years, the top day for airline capacity has been a Friday.

• Six of the busiest annual days for travel were on the second Friday of August, making it the most common.
• Four of them happened on the first Friday of August.
• Four times, the busiest day was in July.
• In the two pandemic era, 'outlier' years, 2020 and 2021, the busiest days of travel were in January and December respectively.

So, is a Friday in early August the worst day to travel? If we agree that delays, long queues and cancellations add up to a bad day of travel, then rest assured that airlines and airports run a well-oiled machine, with staffing levels, turnarounds, and timings meticulously planned for efficiency. You're no more likely to encounter a stressful day of air travel - which tend to be caused by more random, uncontrollable weather events or IT meltdowns - on the busiest day than on any other.

Which Airports See Most Passengers on The Busiest Days of Air Travel?

Press play on the map above and you'll see that through the years, the top 5 busiest airports on the year's biggest day for air capacity have not varied all that much, although their positions switch. You can hit pause to explore the information further by hovering over the numbers on the map.

If you're a keen follower of our Busiest Airports in The World monthly rankings, you'll know that Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson is consistently the top ranked airport, and this is reflected in the busiest airports on the top days for air travel.

Noticeably, Dubai International Airport makes the list of busiest airports on the busiest day in 2015, and has remained there since. On the other hand, Beijing Capital was the top airport for seats on 3rd January 2020 but has stayed out of the top 5 since then, as a second airport, Beijing Daxing, opened in the city in late 2019. 

Which Airlines are Busiest on the Biggest Days for Air Travel?

For the top airlines on the days with most capacity, we've looked at two different metrics to plot these line graphs. The first shows the top 5 carriers for each year, with the ranking based on seat capacity. The second uses Available Seat Kilometers (ASKs).

When it comes to seats, Southwest has been comfortably in the top two biggest airlines on the busiest day, swapping first place with Delta a couple of times over the years. Reflecting its position as a short-haul carrier, Southwest comes in further down the ranks when we look at ASKs, switching between fourth and fifth placed.

American, Delta and United have shared the top spot as biggest airline by ASKs on the biggest days for airline capacity over the years, Delta having had seven years at the top, United has been number one six times (five of them since 2020) and American Airlines, three.

Which are the Top Routes on The Busiest Days of Air Travel?

Where do people go on the busiest days for travel? The busiest flight routes based on scheduled seats are all short-haul flights, as you'd expect, and most are domestic. Since 2014, the busiest route has been Jeju Airport (CJU) - Seoul Gimpon (GMP). For the whole of August 2024, there were 1.2 million scheduled seats on this route.

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