Airlines are expecting frenzied demand over the Christmas holiday week, with some projecting it will be their busiest holiday travel season.
United Airlines said it expects to have around 9 million passengers during the holiday week, up 12% from last year and marking what the airline believes will be its "busiest ever end of year holiday travel season."
More than 455,000 people per day will fly United between Dec. 22 and Dec. 28, up 4% from what the company saw during the Thanksgiving travel period between Nov. 20 and Nov. 26.
OVER 115M PEOPLE EXPECTED TO TRAVEL DURING HOLIDAYS, AIRPORT TOTALS TO BREAK RECORDS: AAA
A combined 1 million passengers are expected to fly on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23. The busiest New Year travel day is projected to be Jan. 2 with 525,000 passengers flying.
Delta Air Lines is also expecting nearly 9 million people during the winter holiday travel period. However, Delta's figures account for travel days from Dec. 21 through Jan. 7.
THANKSGIVING, CHRISTMAS FLIGHT PRICES WILL CONTINUE RISING, ECONOMIST WARNS
Like United, the figure for the upcoming holiday surpasses the demand it saw during the Thanksgiving period when roughly 6.4 million people traveled with the airline.
Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines said in a Wednesday regulatory filing that it expects "record fourth quarter operating revenues and record fourth quarter passengers."
The airline faced an operational meltdown last Christmas that resulted in nearly 17,000 canceled flights over the holiday travel season.
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Southwest Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green told analysts during an earnings call in October that bookings for the holidays were "strong."
Virgin Atlantic, which is owned in part by Delta, told FOX Business earlier this month that the carrier had its biggest Black Friday sale in history.
The projections come as AAA estimated that the number of Americans traveling during the year-end holiday travel period this year will reach the second-highest level in more than two decades.
Airports alone will be the "busiest they’ve ever been" in the 10-day time frame since 2000, AAA projected.
Airlines, to ensure they were well-prepared for the holiday rush, boosted their schedules earlier this year as demand started to build.
Mark Weithofer, United Airlines' managing director of domestic network planning, said in November that the carrier has already started to see "record-breaking demand for winter travel."
