Best day to fly around Thanksgiving: delays by day
Nationally, Thanksgiving Day had the fewest late arrivals (9.0%) and Sun after the most (31.1%), pooling 2022–2025. In 2025 the weekend after Thanksgiving was much worse than in other years, so a bad Sunday is not guaranteed.
Share of flights arriving 15+ minutes late, by day relative to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, Nov 26, so Tue Nov 24 – Sun Nov 29.
| Day | 2022 late | 2023 late | 2024 late | 2025 late | All years late | All years cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue before | 14.3% | 20.4% | 15.4% | 17.9% | 17.0% | 0.2% |
| Wed before | 14.1% | 13.8% | 16.2% | 22.1% | 16.6% | 0.1% |
| Thanksgiving Day | 15.0% | 4.7% | 8.5% | 7.5% | 9.0% | 0.1% |
| Fri after | 11.6% | 11.4% | 13.3% | 15.6% | 13.0% | 0.2% |
| Sat after | 17.2% | 16.1% | 22.1% | 33.1% | 22.1% | 2.3% |
| Sun after | 25.8% | 28.9% | 22.9% | 46.9% | 31.1% | 1.2% |
Fewer people fly on Thanksgiving Day itself, so lighter traffic is a plausible reason for fewer delays (our data show flight counts but not the cause). Best-day results say nothing about your specific route or weather that day. See each airport page for a day-by-day table.