United Airlines flew a record number of travelers during every major holiday travel period this year. Christmas and New Year’s will soon be added to the list.
Airline officials said United is planning for more than 9.9 million people to fly with it between Dec. 19–Jan. 6, up 12% compared to last year. On average – nearly 520,000 people will fly United every day during the year-end holiday period (based on current bookings) – about 62,000 more people per day than last year.
The busiest days. The airline expects Dec. 27-28 (Fri-Sat) to join Dec. 20 as days in which the airline has more than 540,000 passengers.
United is thrilled to have the business, but happier still about this: The airline had its highest-ever customer satisfaction scores in one day during the Thanksgiving period.
“Even as the number of travelers grows, our operational performance and customer scores are at their highest level in years,” Chief Customer Officer David Kinzelman said.
“United is ready for the holidays – our teams on the ground and in the air look forward to delivering a great experience and we’ve added even more easy-to-use features to our app to help our customers stay informed and save time.”
United, which will operate nearly 4,500 flights per day, added nearly 500 flights a day on average to help manage this boost in demand.
Where are people going? United said the most popular New Year’s Eve destinations outside of United’s hub cities include Orlando, Las Vegas, Cancun, Fort Lauderdale and Honolulu.
