U.S. airline United Airlines is expecting one of its busiest travel days since the pandemic.
In the United States, Thanksgiving has a history of bringing families and friends together as thousands of Americans travel to visit each other for the annual holiday. United Airlines is expecting its busiest Thanksgiving ever in 2023.
United Airlines plans to carry more than 5.9 million passengers from Nov. 17 through Nov. 29, a 5 percent increase over pre-Thanksgiving 2019 and a 13 percent increase over 2022.
The airline will operate an average of 3,900 flights per day, which equates to about three takeoffs per minute.
As such, the carrier has added more than 550,000 seats to meet the backlog of demand.
United Airlines expects to serve more customers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, than any other travel day since before the pandemic. More than 517,000 passengers will board the company's flights that day, about 60,000 more than on Nov. 27, 2022, the Sunday after last year's Thanksgiving.
Passengers flying United flights this holiday season in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday can also expect faster boarding thanks to a new boarding system (WILMA).