RDU officials anticipate almost 590K passengers this holiday season

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Officials at RDU have revealed what they are expecting for the holiday travel rush.

RDU anticipates almost 590,00 passengers will travel through the airport over the holidays. The airport says since Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year, passenger traffic will be spread out over 18 days rather than 16 last year. The busy season began on December 17 and will end January 3.

The busiest travel day is expected to be Dec. 23. Dec. 25 is projected to be the slowest day.

Thousands of people are expected to be getting a head start on their holiday travel this week.

AAA is already out with their predictions.

They say 184,000 North Carolinians are expected to travel by air this holiday season.

Nationwide, 7.2 million Americans are expected to fly. That is a 14% increase from last year and close to levels we saw in 2019.

Both AAA and the booking app Hopper say traveling may be more expensive this year, due to the demand and high costs for airlines.