Travel Expected to Increase in December, According to United Airlines

United Airlines expects travel to increase in December as more people seek to escape for the holidays.

“We’re seeing strong pent-up demand in our data and come up with a December program that focuses on the two things people want most for the holidays: hot sun and fresh snow,” Ankit Gupta, vice president of network planning and programming at United, said in a press release.

To meet demand, United plans to operate 3,500 daily domestic flights in the last month of the year, making it the airline’s largest program since the start of the pandemic. By comparison, United only flew 649 flights in a single day in April 2020.

“We know families and friends can’t wait to get together this holiday season, which is why we’re excited to add new flights that will help them connect and celebrate together,” Gupta said.

In December, United will begin offering new direct flights to Las Vegas and Phoenix from Cleveland, and to Orlando from Indianapolis. United will offer up to 195 daily flights to 12 Florida destinations this winter, the most flights to the state in the company’s history. The carrier will also have 66 daily flights to more than a dozen ski destinations across the United States on its schedule.

The airline expects the busiest travel days for the Thanksgiving holiday to be Wednesday, November 24 and Sunday, November 28. United said the most popular days for the winter break are expected to be Thursday, December 23 and Sunday, January 2.

If you want to travel while on vacation and haven’t booked yet, experts say now is the time.

“We expect prices to stay relatively low until around Halloween, so this is the day that if you know you are coming to Halloween, this is when you should definitely book if you don’t. ‘haven’t booked yet, “Adit Damodaran, economist at Hopper. , said in an interview with ABC News. “Because after Halloween, we expect Thanksgiving prices to start increasing by about 40% for domestic and international flights for Christmas.”

After Halloween, Hopper said travelers should expect domestic fares to increase 40% through Thanksgiving week, and an additional 25% for all last-minute flights.

Sam Sweeney of ABC News contributed to this report.