New York top destination for Thanksgiving in United States: OAG

New York top destination for Thanksgiving holiday in United States: OAG

Even beyond Thanksgiving Holidays, New York is the most popular destination in US (Photo: New York City Tourism + Conventions Bureau)

As the annual holiday rush around Thanksgiving Holiday begins in the United States, aviation consultancy OAG says that American Airlines tops other carriers in terms of capacity from November 23-27, while New York is top destination and Mexico the top international source market for these holidays.

Rate this post

Even before the beginning of one of the busiest travel periods in the United States, the Thanksgiving Holiday season, many airports running at peak capacity. Aviation consultancy firm OAG says that in the period from November 23-27, the five days leading up to the Thanksgiving Holiday have seen a strong growth in airline capacity with many carriers having ramped up their numbers to cater to the demand.

In a press statement, OAG says that as expected, the big four US airlines dominate capacity for this busy period. American Airlines has most capacity in the five day lead in to Thanksgiving, with 3.6 million seats in the schedules. Close behind is Southwest with 3.3 million seats. Delta is the third busiest US airline approaching the holiday with 3.2 million seats and rounding out the big four is United Airlines with 2.7 million seats. The fifth busiest airline in the US between November 23rd-27 is Alaska Airlines, scheduling 0.8 million seats, says OAG.

According to the statement, in terms of top destinations for travel during Thanksgiving, New York is a clear favourite with airline capacity of 1.2 million seats from November 23-27. The next busiest destination is Atlanta with 919,676 seats scheduled to arrive. Quite close behind, and the third busiest US city for airline arrivals in the run-in to Thanksgiving is Dallas.

Next on the list, according to OAG is Chicago with 820,368 seats and the fifth city on the list is Los Angeles, where 705,902 airplane seats are scheduled to arrive in the period. OAG says that the list of the top five cities for departures in the three days following Thanksgiving consists of the same cities, in the same order.

While most of the Thanksgiving travel is domestic in the US, the country also receives a large number of tourists and this year, the top source market for travel to the US in the Thanksgiving period is Mexico, with 374,869 seats, followed by Canada with 239,486 airline seats and the United Kingdom with 148,118 airline seats. Puerto Rico is the fourth biggest source market with 108,025 seats and Germany rounds up the top 5 with 77,252 seats in the November 23-27 period.