Holiday travel
Thanksgiving at TUS
Tucson International Airport, Tucson, AZ. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against TUS’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 one and about the same in two of the three years. The gap ran from 0.6 points above usual in 2024 to 6.0 points above usual in 2023.
0.49% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Thanksgiving windows, against 0.79% 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 | 239 | 92.1% | 86.1% | +6.0better | 0.00% | 0.79% |
| 2024Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024 | 279 | 86.7% | 86.1% | +0.6about the same | 0.00% | 0.78% |
| 2025Nov 26–30, 2025 | 291 | 87.4% | 86.1% | +1.3about the same | 1.37% | 0.79% |
| All years3 windows | 809 | 88.5% | 86.1% | +2.4better | 0.49% | 0.79% |
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 Sunday after Thanksgiving ran lowest (84.0% on time, 1.9 points below usual) and the Friday after Thanksgiving highest (95.6%, 10.0 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 | 3% more | 82.9% | 85.7% | −2.8about the same | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Tuesday beforeoutside the window | 16% more | 82.7% | 87.3% | −4.6about the same | 0.55% | — · — · — |
| Wednesday before | 16% more | 86.7% | 86.0% | +0.7about the same | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Thanksgiving Day | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Friday after | 7% fewer | 95.6% | 85.6% | +10.0better | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Saturday after | 17% more | 85.1% | 87.2% | −2.1about the same | 2.23% | — · — · — |
| Sunday after | 7% more | 84.0% | 85.9% | −1.9about the same | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Monday afteroutside the window | 8% more | 85.8% | 85.7% | +0.1about the same | 0.54% | — · — · — |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | about the same | 84.0% | 87.3% | −3.3about the same | 0.00% | — · — · — |
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 TUS were Wednesday, Nov 22, 2023 (53 departures), Sunday, Nov 26, 2023 (55 departures), Wednesday, Nov 27, 2024 (63 departures), Sunday, Dec 1, 2024 (67 departures), Wednesday, Nov 26, 2025 (66 departures), and Sunday, Nov 30, 2025 (66 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 93.9%, 2.6 points above usual for that time of day. Those leaving 12–3 PM had the lowest: 87.9%, still 3.1 points above usual for that time of day.
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 93.9% | 91.3% | +2.6about the same | — | — | — |
| 9 AM–12 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12–3 PM | 87.9% | 84.8% | +3.1about the same | — | — | — |
| 3–6 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 6–9 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 PM–5 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
TUS beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts TUS’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether TUS did better or worse than the network.
| Year | TUS on time | TUS, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Nov 22–26, 2023 | 92.1% | +6.0 | 83.7% | +1.9 |
| 2024Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024 | 86.7% | +0.6 | 82.6% | +0.8 |
| 2025Nov 26–30, 2025 | 87.4% | +1.3 | 72.8% | −9.0 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at TUS, or the network view.