The busiest days to fly in the US
Every day of TSA checkpoint numbers since January 2025: the busiest days on record, the busiest day of the week, the quietest days, and how 2026 compares with 2025.
The short answer
- Busiest day ever: Sun, Nov 30, 2025, the Sunday after Thanksgiving: 3,134,613 people.
- Busiest days of the week: Sunday, Friday, Thursday and Monday.
- Quietest: Tuesday, then Wednesday and Saturday.
- Busiest months: June and July. Quietest: January.
Every day of 2026 so far
Darker means more people went through TSA checkpoints that day. The dark first column is Sundays; the pale squares are mostly Tuesdays, Saturdays and holidays.
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Through Thu, Oct 22, 2026, the latest day TSA had published.
Every day of 2025
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
TSA screened 906,735,976 people in 2025, about 2.48 million a day.
The 10 busiest days on record
- Sun, Nov 30, 2025: 3,134,613
- Sun, Jun 22, 2025: 3,096,797
- Sun, Jul 20, 2025: 3,043,973
- Sun, Jul 6, 2025: 3,041,954
- Sun, Jul 27, 2025: 3,017,861
- Fri, Oct 10, 2025: 3,017,612
- Fri, May 23, 2025: 3,010,183
- Sun, Jul 13, 2025: 3,007,773
- Fri, Aug 1, 2025: 2,999,166
- Thu, Jul 17, 2025: 2,998,225
The Sunday after Thanksgiving holds the record, and summer Sundays take half the list. Two are Fridays before long weekends: Memorial Day and Columbus Day.
Busiest day of the week
Average people screened per day in 2025:
The pattern holds in 2026: Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday are the heavy days, and Tuesday is the lightest, about 21% below Sunday.
What this means for your leave time
A busy day nationally doesn't mean a long line everywhere, and the hour matters as much as the day: see what time of day TSA is busiest. Each of our airport guides lists that airport's busiest hours and checkpoints.
Leave By works out the time for your flight: live traffic from your starting point, the security line at your terminal and your airline's cutoffs. For the next big weeks, see Thanksgiving 2026 and Christmas and New Year's 2026.
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Questions travelers ask
What is the busiest day to fly in the US?
The busiest day on record is Sun, Nov 30, 2025, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when TSA screened 3,134,613 people. In all, 8 days have topped 3 million, all of them in 2025, and every one fell on a Friday or a Sunday.
What day of the week is busiest to fly?
In 2025 it was Sunday, with 2.74 million people screened on an average Sunday. In 2026 so far, Thursday, Sunday and Friday are nearly tied (2.69 million, 2.68 million, 2.68 million on an average day). Tuesday is the quietest day of the week in both years, with about 2.16 million.
What are the quietest days to fly?
Tuesdays and Saturdays every week, January and February overall, and the holidays themselves: TSA screened 1,559,165 people on Thanksgiving Day 2025, 2,066,118 on Christmas Day 2025 and 1,882,467 on July 4, 2026.
What is the busiest month to fly?
July, with 2.74 million people a day on average in 2025. June was close behind. January was the quietest, at 2.12 million a day.
Is air travel busier in 2026 than in 2025?
Slightly less busy so far. From Jan 1 to Oct 22, TSA screened 729,819,519 people in 2026, 0.8% fewer than the 735,515,710 over the same dates in 2025. The busiest day of 2026 so far is Thu, Jun 18, 2026, with 2,988,204; no 2026 day has reached 3 million yet.
About the numbers
These are TSA's published counts of people screened at its checkpoints nationwide each day. They count screenings, not airline passengers: a traveler connecting between flights usually isn't screened again, so airline passenger totals run higher. Source: TSA checkpoint travel numbers (2026) and 2025.
Writing about holiday travel? These charts are free to use with credit to Leave By (leaveby.xyz). Download them as images: 2025 calendar and busiest weekday.
Checked October 25, 2026.