Travel pundits have been predicting for weeks that Thanksgiving 2025 could be the busiest ever for US commercial aviation. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has now confirmed that Sunday, November 30 was the busiest travel day in US history, with more than 3.13 million passengers screened at airports nationwide.
This new record surpasses the previous busiest day of 3.09 million passengers, set earlier this year, and represents a 1.4% increase from the post-Thanksgiving Sunday last year. Before this year, US airport screenings had only exceeded 3 million passengers on two occasions, but this has now occurred on seven days in 2025.
The Busiest Travel Day In TSA History
US travel faced a number of challenges over Thanksgiving weekend. The aviation sector is still recovering from the US government shutdown, which led to thousands of daily cancellations and over 5 million passengers with disrupted travel plans. Add to that severe weather across the US Midwest and unknown risks due to Airbus software update issues, and the potential for travel disruption was high.
Despite this, Reuters reports that TSA agents screened 3,133,924 individuals on Sunday, November 30, the highest number in the agency’s history. In doing so, it broke the previous record of 3,096,797 million screenings on June 22 of this year. This compares to the average daily volume of about 2.48 million passengers, which itself represents an increase of about 14,000 travelers per day in 2025 over 2024.
Adam Stahl, the deputy TSA administrator, recognized the record travel but also took a moment to thank the TSA agents for their efforts:
“The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year, and this year we have seen record numbers of holiday travelers taking to the skies. We are extremely grateful for the tireless work of our TSA Officers, who show up every day to ensure Americans can travel freely and safely.”
The Top 10 Busiest Travel Days On Record
The US has now surpassed three million passengers screened in a single day on nine separate occasions (see table below). Interestingly, while the Sunday after Thanksgiving is typically the busiest day of the year for US travel, it is actually the summer months that dominate as the most active days for TSA screenings. The start of the 2025 summer travel season is the second-busiest day on record, and all four Sundays in July are in the Top 10 of record travel days.
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Top 10 Record Travel Days In The US (TSA screenings) |
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Date |
Notes |
Passengers Screened |
|
November 30, 2025 |
Sunday after Thanksgiving |
3,133,924 |
|
June 22, 2025 |
Start of the summer travel season |
3,096,797 |
|
December 1, 2024 |
Sunday after Thanksgiving |
3,088,836 |
|
July 6, 2025 |
Sunday after Fourth of July |
3,041,954 |
|
July 20, 2025 |
Mid-summer peak |
3,040,346 |
|
July 27, 2025 |
Mid-summer peak |
3,017,408 |
|
July 7, 2024 |
Sunday after Fourth of July |
3,013,622 |
|
May 23, 2025 |
Start of Memorial Day weekend |
3,010,183 |
|
July 13, 2025 |
Mid-summer peak |
3,005,374 |
|
July 17, 2025 |
Mid-summer peak |
2,998,091 |
The 2025 travel surge has occurred despite initial concerns from airlines about weaker travel demand in 2025. Many expected that policies of the current US administration, such as tariffs and tighter immigration, would lead to a drop in travel, but this hasn’t materialized. In fact, it might partly be the airlines’ reaction to negative demand forecasts earlier in the year that is driving this surge. Nerdwallet reports that travel costs actually came down year-over-year for six months in a row (March-August), and summer airfares were 7.4% lower than last year.
Summer Travel Surge: TSA Expects Even Busier Days Ahead
TSA just set its all-time record for the number of passengers processed in a day.
The Exceptionally Busy Airports
It is also worth noting that TSA screenings are not the ultimate guide to how busy any given airport actually is. For example, 
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) has a record of 114,000 daily screenings, but the actual number of passengers passing through the world’s busiest airport on any given day is up to three times that figure.
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is in a similar position. Its record number of screenings is 117,871 travelers in a single day, set on August 4, the day after the Lollapalooza music festival concluded. It’s top ten busiest days for TSA screenings all occurred this past summer. Yet inside the terminals, ORD welcomed more than 8.26 million passengers in July, which is an average of 266,000 passengers passing through the airport each day.
ORD is currently at the center of a titanic battle between United Airlines and 
American Airlines, both of which maintain a hub at the airport. United has been growing strongly, and now offers 47% of all seats from its Windy City base. But American has been fighting back in recent months, adding destinations and upgauging aircraft on existing routes. The net effect has been increased capacity and lower fares, driving an 11% year-over-year increase in airline traffic so far this year.
