Holiday travel

Holiday travel at ORD

Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, IL. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against ORD’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.

History, not a forecast. This shows what happened in past holiday windows. It cannot say what this year will bring, and each holiday appears only a few times in the data, so one bad storm can decide a whole year. Check your airline for your own flight.

The five holidays at ORD

At ORD, Thanksgiving ran furthest below ordinary days (−12.9 points) and Labor Day furthest above (+10.8 points).

Each row pools every year of that holiday’s window at ORD and sets it against ORD’s own ordinary days of the same weekdays in the weeks around it. Open a holiday for its day-by-day figures.

The five holidays at ORD against its ordinary days
HolidayOn timeGap from usual, pointsCancelledWorst dayBest dayAll airports, gap
Thanksgiving3 times in the data65.4%usual 78.3%−12.9worseyears: 1 better, 2 worse7.44%usual 1.12%Sunday after (two of three)Thanksgiving Day (three of three)−2.1worse
Christmas to New Year’s3 times in the data71.3%usual 72.9%−1.6worseyears: 2 better, 1 worse1.18%usual 2.27%December 29 (two of three)Moved each year−3.2worse
July 44 times in the data70.5%usual 67.2%+3.3betteryears: 2 better, 2 worse4.35%usual 2.67%July 2 (two of four)July 4 (two of four)+5.2better
Memorial Day3 times in the data69.2%usual 73.9%−4.7worseyears: 1 better, 2 worse0.62%usual 1.45%Sunday before (two of two)Saturday before (two of two)−0.3about the same
Labor Day3 times in the data85.8%usual 75.0%+10.8betteryears: 3 better0.24%usual 1.84%Labor Day (two of two)Moved each year+4.2better

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.