Holiday travel
Thanksgiving at ANC
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage, AK. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against ANC’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.
The window, year by year
The window runs the Wednesday before through the Sunday after, around Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday of November). In the data: Nov 22–26, 2023; Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024; Nov 26–30, 2025. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Thanksgiving flights ran better than ordinary days in all three years. The gap ran from 7.2 points above usual in 2025 to 11.6 points above usual in 2023.
0.36% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Thanksgiving windows, against 1.30% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. It was lower in two of the three years.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Nov 22–26, 2023 | 179 | 92.7% | 81.1% | +11.6better | 0.00% | 1.29% |
| 2024Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024 | 173 | 89.0% | 81.1% | +7.9better | 0.00% | 1.29% |
| 2025Nov 26–30, 2025 | 199 | 88.3% | 81.1% | +7.2better | 1.01% | 1.32% |
| All years3 windows | 551 | 90.0% | 81.1% | +8.9better | 0.36% | 1.30% |
Day by day
No single day has enough flights in one year to compare the years, so the days are ranked on all three years pooled: the Saturday after Thanksgiving ran lowest (82.9% on time, about level with usual) and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving highest (93.6%, 13.2 points above usual). This cannot say whether the same day was worst or best in each year.
- Better than usual
- Worse than usual
- About the same
- What ordinary days of the same weekday had
- Lowest to highest single year
- Lighter bars: days just outside the window
Bars show the on-time arrival rate and start at 70%, not zero. A dashed stub is a day with too few flights to print a rate.
| Day | Departures against an ordinary day | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Each year: 2023, 2024, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 91.6% | 82.7% | +8.9better | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Tuesday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 93.4% | 85.3% | +8.1better | 0.82% | — · — · — |
| Wednesday before | 7% more | 93.6% | 80.4% | +13.2better | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Thanksgiving Day | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Friday after | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Saturday after | 3% more | 82.9% | 83.8% | −0.9about the same | 1.60% | — · — · — |
| Sunday after | 2% more | 87.0% | 80.1% | +6.9better | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Monday afteroutside the window | about the same | 73.3% | 82.7% | −9.4worse | 2.44% | — · — · — |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
A dash means fewer than 120 flights stood behind the figure, or behind the ordinary days it would be compared with: too few to print a rate, and nothing is estimated in its place. “Usual” is what ordinary days of the same weekday had at the same place in the weeks around the holiday, weighted by the flights being compared.
Which departure times held up
The busiest days at ANC were Wednesday, Nov 22, 2023 (40 departures), Friday, Nov 24, 2023 (41 departures), Wednesday, Nov 27, 2024 (40 departures), Saturday, Nov 30, 2024 (40 departures), Wednesday, Nov 26, 2025 (45 departures), and Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (45 departures).
ANC has too few flights in each departure window to compare them.
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 AM–12 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12–3 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3–6 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 6–9 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 PM–5 AM | 92.5% | 82.8% | +9.7better | — | — | — |
ANC beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts ANC’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether ANC did better or worse than the network.
| Year | ANC on time | ANC, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Nov 22–26, 2023 | 92.7% | +11.6 | 83.7% | +1.9 |
| 2024Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024 | 89.0% | +7.9 | 82.6% | +0.8 |
| 2025Nov 26–30, 2025 | 88.3% | +7.2 | 72.8% | −9.0 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at ANC, or the network view.