2.8 million people boarded planes at Houston's airports in May, setting a new record for passenger enplanements. Forecasts show that May is just the start of a historic summer in a record-making year.
In January, Houston Airports learned it welcomed a record-making 60.1 million passengers in 2023. Houston Airports had officially surpassed pre-pandemic passenger totals. Then came March 2024 and a record-setting Spring Break. Weeks later, Houston Airports welcomed unprecedented passenger totals for a record-setting Memorial Day, giving Houston a preview of what is anticipated to be the busiest summer on record for Houston Airports - 19 million passengers are moving through George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) this summer. Record after record after record. Why?
First, let's look at the data. Houston Airports tracks data in a few ways:
- TSA Throughputs, which count people who clear security on a daily basis.
- Enplanements count passengers who board a plane in Houston each month, whether boarding a nonstop flight or making a connection.
- Total Passenger Traffic includes arrivals and departures for the month. Everyone in our airport!
At the time of publishing this article, The Top 5 TSA Daily Throughput days in Houston happened in 2024: March 8, June 6, May 24, May 27, and March 10.
While most of the busiest days happened during a holiday travel week—Spring Break or Memorial Day—June 6, 2024, fell on a Thursday, and it was not connected to a widely celebrated holiday.
Data confirms in May 2024, Houston Airports hit record monthly enplanement. 2,816,854 million people boarded flights at Bush or Hobby airport. The last record was set in July 2018 with 2,794,798 passengers.
When it comes to record passenger totals, Houston Airports welcomed a record 5,627,908 passengers in July 2023. However, Houston Airports is anticipating that July 2024 will make a running for a new total passenger record.
JULY 4TH HOLIDAY: Houston Airports anticipates more than 1.9 million passengers at Bush and Hobby airports between Thursday, June 27 and Monday, July 8. This represents an 8% increase from 2023.
Because of the sheer volume of passengers arriving and departing from Houston's airports this summer, Houston Airports anticipates traffic on airport roads, especially during peak travel hours between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. daily. Houston Airports urges those heading to Bush Airport to monitor traffic, add more time to get to the airport, find parking, and navigate the Ticketing Lobby or Arrivals Curbs.
LEARN MORE | What Houston Airports is doing to mitigate July 4 holiday & summer traffic
Houston Airports connects passengers to 193 destinations with the help of 28 airlines spread across Bush and Hobby Airports. A commercial aviation industry term called 'upgauging' is also helping to drive up demand for commercial air travel. Upgauging enables air carriers to increase capacity by adding seats to existing jets and replacing smaller planes with larger ones.
United Airlines can help us explain.
- United Airlines is the largest airline in Houston, currently flying 490 daily flights out of Bush Airport, including 56 international destinations (including Latin America, Canada, Europe and Asia), averaging about 55,000 customers served a day.
- As part of the United Next growth plan, an enterprise-wide investment in fleet, network, airports, and customer experience, over the next decade, United intends to introduce more than 800 narrow and wide-body aircraft to its fleet and expand its global network to reach new points on the map. With that growth plan underway, United is utilizing larger gauge aircraft for domestic and international routes. United is phasing out its 50-seat aircraft and utilizing 75-seat aircraft. This transition allows for the use of more mainline aircraft and ultimately offers 12% more seats per departure compared to last year.
- United Airlines expects this Independence Day weekend to be its busiest on record. More than 5 million passengers are forecasted to fly United—airline-wide—between June 28 and July 8, up more than 7% compared to last year.
Upgauging helps airlines sell more seats on a single trip, supporting a year of nonstop record air travel, which makes for packed airports. A change in consumer priorities is also helping as more airlines roll out last-minute travel deals. If you're looking to fly this summer, consider some of these summer destinations from Houston's airports.