Holiday travel
Thanksgiving at OAK
Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against OAK’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.
Compared with ordinary days, Thanksgiving flights were better in two and worse in one of the three years. The gap ran from 5.1 points below usual in 2025 to 7.5 points above usual in 2024.
0.32% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Thanksgiving windows, against 0.86% 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 | 609 | 88.3% | 83.3% | +5.0better | 0.33% | 0.87% |
| 2024Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024 | 521 | 90.8% | 83.3% | +7.5better | 0.00% | 0.86% |
| 2025Nov 26–30, 2025 | 453 | 78.1% | 83.2% | −5.1worse | 0.66% | 0.86% |
| All years3 windows | 1,583 | 86.2% | 83.3% | +2.9better | 0.32% | 0.86% |
Day by day
The Sunday after Thanksgiving was the worst day of the window in the year measured. Over the years it ran 79.9% on time, 2.3 points below an ordinary Sunday.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving was the best day of the window in the year measured. Over the years it ran 86.7% on time, 1.2 points above an ordinary Wednesday.
Thanksgiving Day itself carried 31% fewer departures than an ordinary Thursday and ran 94.3% on time.
- 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 | 5% more | 83.8% | 84.2% | −0.4about the same | 0.29% | 81.3 · — · — |
| Tuesday beforeoutside the window | 8% more | 85.1% | 89.7% | −4.6worse | 0.30% | 88.6 · — · — |
| Wednesday before | 10% more | 86.7% | 85.5% | +1.2about the same | 0.00% | 89.6 · — · — |
| Thanksgiving Day | 31% fewer | 94.3% | 84.2% | +10.1better | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Friday after | 3% fewer | 89.5% | 81.2% | +8.3better | 0.92% | 87.9 · — · — |
| Saturday after | 22% more | 83.9% | 83.6% | +0.3about the same | 0.31% | — · — · — |
| Sunday after | 10% more | 79.9% | 82.2% | −2.3about the same | 0.27% | 80.6 · 92.9 · — |
| Monday afteroutside the window | 3% more | 80.9% | 84.2% | −3.3about the same | 0.29% | 85.2 · — · — |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | about the same | 88.3% | 89.7% | −1.4about the same | 0.64% | 91.5 · — · — |
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 OAK were Wednesday, Nov 22, 2023 (134 departures), Friday, Nov 24, 2023 (134 departures), Wednesday, Nov 27, 2024 (114 departures), Sunday, Dec 1, 2024 (126 departures), Friday, Nov 28, 2025 (95 departures), and Sunday, Nov 30, 2025 (110 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 92.5%, about level with usual for that time of day. Those leaving 6–9 PM had the lowest: 78.5%, still 1.2 points above usual for that time of day.
The holiday helped flights leaving 3–6 PM the most (5.1 points above usual for that time of day) and those leaving 5–9 AM the least (0.7 points above).
On each year’s two busiest days, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 92.7%, about level with usual for that time of day. Those leaving 6–9 PM had the lowest: 81.1%, still 3.8 points above usual for that time of day.
The holiday helped flights leaving 9 AM–12 PM the most (4.5 points above usual for that time of day) and those leaving 5–9 AM the least (0.6 points above).
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 92.5% | 91.8% | +0.7about the same | 92.7% | 92.1% | +0.6about the same |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 89.0% | 85.6% | +3.4about the same | 88.9% | 84.4% | +4.5about the same |
| 12–3 PM | 86.1% | 82.2% | +3.9about the same | — | — | — |
| 3–6 PM | 83.3% | 78.2% | +5.1better | — | — | — |
| 6–9 PM | 78.5% | 77.3% | +1.2about the same | 81.1% | 77.3% | +3.8about the same |
| 9 PM–5 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
OAK beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts OAK’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether OAK did better or worse than the network.
| Year | OAK on time | OAK, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Nov 22–26, 2023 | 88.3% | +5.0 | 83.7% | +1.9 |
| 2024Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024 | 90.8% | +7.5 | 82.6% | +0.8 |
| 2025Nov 26–30, 2025 | 78.1% | −5.1 | 72.8% | −9.0 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at OAK, or the network view.