American Airlines Expects 12.7 Million Customers During the Holidays

American Airlines is ready to close out 2024 by welcoming nearly 12.7 million customers across more than 118,000 flights for winter holiday travel. This comes after the airline delivered strong operational performance during the Thanksgiving holiday travel period, including leading the industry in on-time departures.

All Ready

“American delivered industry-leading operational performance over Thanksgiving, and I’d like to thank our team members for their hard work in safely caring for our customers,” said David Seymour, American’s chief operating officer. “We look forward to continuing that momentum as millions once again take to the skies for holiday gatherings and winter vacations.”

American’s operation has been fully winterized to safely and successfully operate this winter. The airline’s deicing operation is also ready and is already well underway at many cold-weather airports.

During the 2024 Thanksgiving travel period, American canceled the fewest mainline flights compared to its major network competitors. There were four days during the travel period when the airline did not cancel a single mainline flight, three days when the airline didn’t cancel a single regional flight and one day when the airline did not cancel a mainline or regional flight.

6 quick facts about American’s winter holiday operation:

• American’s travel period runs from Dec. 18, 2024, to Jan. 6, 2025.
• The most-traveled day will be Friday, Dec. 27, while the second-most traveled day is Friday, Dec. 20.
• 1,500 mainline and regional aircraft will travel more than 102 million miles during the travel period. That’s nearly 1.1 trillion candy canes laid end to end.
• During the winter holiday period, American will serve more than 6.6 million bags of pretzels.
• The peak of peak: 1,074 mainline and regional aircraft are scheduled to be enroute at 12:40 p.m. CT on Sunday, Dec. 22, the highest number of flights handled at any given time during the period.
• During last year’s holiday season, American customers watched nearly 20 million minutes of holiday-themed movies and TV shows while in flight. The airline will once again offer a collection of top holiday content for our customers to enjoy during their travels.