Busiest Christmas Travel Days 2026: Last Year's Peak Maps to Dec. 27

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 2,924,593 people on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, its highest count of the Dec. 18-31 stretch last year, and the same weekday in 2026 is Sunday, Dec. 27. Christmas Day 2026 is Friday, Dec. 25, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The table below pairs every day from Dec. 18 to 30, 2026 with the same weekday 364 days earlier, using TSA’s published daily checkpoint numbers.

These are last year’s counts, not a forecast. Neither TSA nor the American Automobile Association (AAA) had released a 2026 year-end projection as of Nov. 10, 2026.

Christmas 2026 airport screening counts by matching weekday

Each 2026 date is matched to the date 364 days earlier (same weekday) in 2025, and 728 days earlier in 2024. Because Christmas moves from a Thursday in 2025 to a Friday in 2026, the weekday match shifts the holiday dip by a day, which the next section corrects for.

2026 date	Same weekday in 2025 (people screened)	Same weekday in 2024 (people screened)
Fri., Dec. 18	Fri., Dec. 19: 2,824,905	Dec. 20: 2,845,856
Sat., Dec. 19	Sat., Dec. 20: 2,748,731	Dec. 21: 2,773,545
Sun., Dec. 20	Sun., Dec. 21: 2,769,228	Dec. 22: 2,800,962
Mon., Dec. 21	Mon., Dec. 22: 2,795,090	Dec. 23: 2,758,299
Tue., Dec. 22	Tue., Dec. 23: 2,822,653	Dec. 24: 2,068,817
Wed., Dec. 23	Wed., Dec. 24: 2,236,205	Dec. 25: 2,039,342
Thu., Dec. 24	Thu., Dec. 25: 2,066,118	Dec. 26: 2,743,795
Fri., Dec. 25	Fri., Dec. 26: 2,716,278	Dec. 27: 2,848,156
Sat., Dec. 26	Sat., Dec. 27: 2,804,814	Dec. 28: 2,741,872
Sun., Dec. 27	Sun., Dec. 28: 2,924,593	Dec. 29: 2,805,401
Mon., Dec. 28	Mon., Dec. 29: 2,811,757	Dec. 30: 2,765,740
Tue., Dec. 29	Tue., Dec. 30: 2,827,572	Dec. 31: 2,172,902
Wed., Dec. 30	Wed., Dec. 31: 2,291,360	Jan. 1, 2025: 2,317,817

Sources: TSA 2025 and 2024 checkpoint travel numbers; the weekday matching is our calculation. The 2024 column is a plain weekday match, so it lines up Dec. 22, 2026 with Christmas Eve 2024.

How the counts line up when you count from Christmas Day

Holiday travel follows the holiday, not the weekday. This table counts days before and after Dec. 25 in each year and puts the 2026 date beside them. TSA’s 2024 page figures in this window start Dec. 19.

Days from Christmas	2026 date	2025 (people screened)	2024 (people screened)
-7	Dec. 18	Thu: 2,637,016	not used
-6	Dec. 19	Fri: 2,824,905	Thu: 2,651,437
-5	Dec. 20	Sat: 2,748,731	Fri: 2,845,856
-4	Dec. 21	Sun: 2,769,228	Sat: 2,773,545
-3	Dec. 22	Mon: 2,795,090	Sun: 2,800,962
-2	Dec. 23	Tue: 2,822,653	Mon: 2,758,299
-1	Dec. 24	Wed: 2,236,205	Tue: 2,068,817
0	Dec. 25	Thu: 2,066,118	Wed: 2,039,342
+1	Dec. 26	Fri: 2,716,278	Thu: 2,743,795
+2	Dec. 27	Sat: 2,804,814	Fri: 2,848,156
+3	Dec. 28	Sun: 2,924,593	Sat: 2,741,872
+4	Dec. 29	Mon: 2,811,757	Sun: 2,805,401
+5	Dec. 30	Tue: 2,827,572	Mon: 2,765,740

The two methods give different answers for the peak. In 2025 the highest count was the Sunday three days after Christmas (Dec. 28), which is Monday, Dec. 28 if you count from Christmas Day in 2026 and Sunday, Dec. 27 if you match the weekday. In 2024 the highest count was Friday, Dec. 27, two days after Christmas, which is Dec. 27 in 2026 by that count. TSA’s numbers show where the crowds were; they do not say where they will be.

What the 2025 and 2024 numbers show

• Christmas Day had the lowest count of Dec. 18-31 in both years: 2,066,118 in 2025 and 2,039,342 in 2024.
• Christmas Eve was also low: 2,236,205 in 2025 and 2,068,817 in 2024.
• The 2025 peak of 2,924,593 was about 42% above Christmas Day 2025 (our calculation) and 76,437 above the 2024 peak of 2,848,156.
• On Dec. 19-23 and Dec. 26-30, every count in both years fell between 2,651,437 and 2,924,593.
• The day after Christmas was not quiet: 2,716,278 people were screened on Dec. 26, 2025 and 2,743,795 on Dec. 26, 2024.

Last year’s drive windows by matching day

AAA’s 2025 forecast, built with the traffic-analytics company INRIX, gave the worst and best times to drive for each day of its period, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025 to Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. The table matches those days to 2026 by weekday and labels them as 2025 windows.

2026 date	Matching 2025 day	INRIX worst time (2025)	INRIX best time (2025)
Fri., Dec. 18	Dec. 19	not in AAA’s period	not in AAA’s period
Sat., Dec. 19	Dec. 20	12 to 8 p.m.	not listed
Sun., Dec. 20	Dec. 21	1 to 7 p.m.	before 11 a.m.
Mon., Dec. 21	Dec. 22	1 to 7 p.m.	before 10 a.m.
Tue., Dec. 22	Dec. 23	1 to 7 p.m.	before 10 a.m.
Wed., Dec. 23	Dec. 24	minimal traffic impact	minimal traffic impact
Thu., Dec. 24	Dec. 25	minimal traffic impact	minimal traffic impact
Fri., Dec. 25	Dec. 26	11 a.m. to 8 p.m.	before 11 a.m.
Sat., Dec. 26	Dec. 27	11 a.m. to 8 p.m.	before 11 a.m.
Sun., Dec. 27	Dec. 28	11 a.m. to 8 p.m.	before 11 a.m.
Mon., Dec. 28	Dec. 29	12 to 8 p.m.	not listed
Tue., Dec. 29	Dec. 30	12 to 7 p.m.	not listed
Wed., Dec. 30	Dec. 31	minimal traffic impact	minimal traffic impact

In that Dec. 10, 2025 forecast, AAA projected 122.4 million Americans would travel at least 50 miles from home over the thirteen-day period, including 109.5 million by car and a record 8.03 million on domestic flights. No 2026 forecast was out as of Nov. 10; last year’s came out Dec. 10, 2025.

Holidays, ID rules and a printable travel calendar

OPM lists Christmas Day on Friday, Dec. 25, 2026 and New Year’s Day on Friday, Jan. 1, 2027. As of Nov. 10, no 2026 executive order giving federal employees Dec. 24 or Dec. 26 off has been announced; our Christmas Eve federal holiday explainer tracks it. Our When is Christmas? page has the date, and a December 2026 printable calendar lets you mark flights.

TSA says REAL ID enforcement began May 7, 2025, and travelers without an acceptable form of ID must pay a $45 fee. Its ConfirmID page says the fee applies for travel on or after Feb. 1 (2026) and lets you use ConfirmID for 10 days from the date of travel listed on the receipt; details are in our TSA ConfirmID fee story.

The free Christmas Travel Calendar, Dec. 18-30, 2026 puts each day’s matching 2025 screening count and INRIX window on one page. It is 2025 data on a 2026 grid, so it will not change until AAA publishes. For the Thanksgiving version of this comparison, see Thanksgiving travel 2026.