US passenger airlines plan 20,700 scheduled aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings) on Christmas Day. Compared to last Thursday, their collective offering has fallen by more than a fifth (-21%). These findings are based on examining the full schedules of the country’s top ten airlines using Cirium Diio data.
Christmas Day always brings about temporary oddities. Due to only cutting 8% of flights, 
United Airlines is the country’s—and the world’s—top operator today. It has overtaken American Airlines, due to that carrier’s much more substantial reduction. Bucking the trend is Frontier, which has actually scheduled more flights than a week ago. And some airlines, such as Boliviana, have added US routes for the festive period.
Allegiant Has Cut 54% Of Flights Today
On a simple movement basis, Allegiant is ordinarily the US’s ninth-largest operator. While Cirium shows that it had 520 takeoffs/landings last Thursday, they’ve been reduced to just 240 for the festive day.
That’s a drop of 54%, and it’s nearly three times the country’s average reduction. Given that the ultra-low-cost carrier focuses virtually completely on vacationers, that’s not much of a surprise. While flying on Christmas Day can be a much quieter and more enjoyable experience, not many people choose to go away or return then.
It flies to 69 airports today, down from 113 seven days ago. Punta Gorda, for the broader Fort Myers area, is temporarily its joint-most-served airport, tied with Orlando Sanford. The airline’s overall routes have fallen from 241 to 112, as shown above. Florida remains the state with by far the most service, but with half the number of flights.
American’s Movements Are Down By 35%
American is usually the world’s largest airline by flights, but it isn’t today. United is. That’s because American’s movements have been cut by a whopping 35%, against just 8% for United. American’s reduction is substantially more than the country’s overall decrease and that of any other US Big Three operator. For one day only, the carrier ranks second.
American has scheduled 4,242 movements, down from 6,499 last Thursday. Despite the big drop, American’s Christmas Day offering is greater than what was available last year, but structural changes mean it is substantially smaller than before the pandemic. It probably benefits from more full aircraft and better fares and yields.
As you’d expect, it has particularly shaved down its substantial domestic operations (-37%). In contrast, short-haul international (Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico) is down by 29%. All other international services, including long-haul, are far less reduced, but a tiny part of its overall operation. The five most-impacted hubs are shown below. Given the nature of their operations, it is unsurprising that New York LaGuardia and Washington Reagan were so prominent.
|
Hub |
American’s Change In Movements* |
|---|---|
|
New York LaGuardia |
-61% |
|
Washington Reagan |
-51% |
|
Chicago O’Hare |
-47% |
|
New York JFK |
-41% |
|
Charlotte |
-39% |
|
* Week-on-week change |
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Delta Has 28% Fewer Movements Today
The SkyTeam member is the only other notable US carrier with a substantial percentage decrease in operations. Its activity is down by 28% today, which also impacts its most-trafficked markets. In comparison, Southwest’s flights are 15% lower than they were last week, while Alaska Airlines is down by 11%, the troubled Spirit is 8% smaller, etc.
Delta has 3,602 movements today. While it is ordinarily the US’s second-largest carrier in this sense, it is now third, behind United and American. Significantly, Delta has more international flights than it did last Thursday, particularly driven by the short-haul market (+26%). Movements involving the Caribbean (+76%) and Mexico (+57%) are notable, as Americans particularly seek warm-weather getaways.
The carrier has 158 Caribbean movements today, up from 90 last week. This is not unusual: it typically has a Christmas boost. It has 46 routes to the region today, a massive 19 more than it did last Thursday. Multiple new and returning routes helped. Enjoy your day, everyone!
