Holiday Travel Boom Bypasses Wyoming’s Airports

Across the country, airports are bracing for the usual holiday crush: packed security lines, crowded gates, and rolling suitcases in every direction. But in Wyoming, it’s a different story, Wyoming News Now reports.

While US air travel is hitting record highs, new data show Wyoming airports actually see fewer passengers during the holiday season than during the rest of the year.

According to a Luxury Link analysis of TSA data, air travel in the US has not only recovered from the pandemic — it’s blown past pre-COVID levels.

• During the 2024 holiday season, US airports averaged about 2.59 million passengers per day.
• That’s up 5.4% from the non-holiday average of roughly 2.46 million daily passengers.

Holiday travel’s been climbing year after year, too:

• 2019 holiday season: about 2.4 million daily passengers;
• 2020: fell to about 1 million amid lockdowns and travel restrictions;
• 2023: back up near 2.5 million, already topping 2019;
• 2024: nearly 2.6 million a day during the holidays.

Non-holiday traffic has followed the same pattern, with 2025 shaping up to be another record-setting year.

But Wyoming doesn’t fit the national mold.

Here’s what the numbers look like inside the state:

• Change in daily passenger traffic during the holiday season: –6.5%;
• Average daily holiday traffic: 2,220 passengers;
• Average daily non-holiday traffic: 2,375 passengers.

In other words, when the rest of the country is crowding into airports, Wyoming actually gets a little quieter.

Even within Wyoming’s dip, there’s a split between the two big holiday periods:

• Thanksgiving holidays: average of 1,644 passengers per day;
• Winter holidays (around Christmas and New Year’s): average of 2,591 passengers per day.

So while overall holiday traffic is down compared to a typical day, Wyoming does see a noticeable pickup closer to the winter holidays. Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is especially slow.

Compare that with the US overall:

• Average daily Thanksgiving traffic (nationwide): 2,590,353;
• Average daily winter holiday traffic (nationwide): 2,592,113.

Nationally, both holiday windows are virtually identical in volume. Wyoming, though, leans heavier toward the December holidays and lighter on Thanksgiving travel.

The data don’t give reasons, but a few likely factors are in play:

• Driving instead of flying:
  Many Wyoming residents may opt to drive to see family in-state or in nearby states rather than fly out of smaller regional airports.
• Fewer tourist hotspots in winter:
  States like Florida and Arizona see big holiday spikes thanks to warm-weather vacations. Wyoming’s big draw — outdoor recreation — can be more weather-dependent and spread across the full winter season, not just holiday peaks.
• Small airports, steady patterns:
  Wyoming’s airports are relatively small. Unlike big coastal or sun-belt hubs that swell with visitors, Wyoming’s passenger base is more local and may not surge as sharply around holidays.

Nationwide, smaller airports generally see the biggest percentage jumps in holiday traffic. In 2024:

• Large hubs: +4.6% holiday bump;
• Medium hubs: +5.7%;
• Small hubs: +6.5%;
• Nonhub primary airports: +8.2%;
• The tiniest nonhub nonprimary airports: +20.1%.

But Wyoming bucks that pattern, with total state traffic slipping instead of swelling.

Even with holiday numbers dipping, Wyoming’s airports are still part of a national push to modernize infrastructure as air travel booms elsewhere.

Through the Airport Infrastructure Grant (AIG) program, airports across the country are sharing $14.5 billion over five years to help pay for:

• Terminal expansions;
• Baggage system upgrades;
• Runway improvements;
• Air traffic control infrastructure.

Those upgrades are meant to help airports handle massive spikes in traffic — like when the TSA screened nearly 3.1 million passengers in a single day in June 2025, the highest day on record.

Wyoming’s smaller volumes don’t exempt it from long-term planning. For communities that depend on reliable air service for business, tourism, and medical travel, these investments are still critical — even if the gate areas aren’t jam-packed at Thanksgiving.

Taken together, the numbers paint a clear picture:

• The US is in a full-tilt holiday travel boom.
• Wyoming is not.

On the national map, huge increases in states like Florida, Arizona, and even smaller Northeastern states like Connecticut stand out. At the same time, colder, less accessible states such as Maine and Alaska actually see holiday travel fall — and Wyoming’s modest decline fits more with that second group.

For now, it means one thing for Cowboy State travelers: while the rest of the country battles packed airports this holiday season, flying in and out of Wyoming might feel — comparatively — pretty calm.