More than 2.5 million travelers will pass through Sea-Tac Airport over holidays

Sea-Tac Airport expects more than 2.5 million travelers to pass through its doors between Dec. 15 and Jan. 2, 2018, making it the most crowded holiday travel season it will have ever experienced.

Sea-Tac will be America’s ninth-busiest airport during the holiday season, according to the Port of Seattle. An estimated 2,507,200 travelers will arrive, depart, or connect through the airport.

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“The busiest time is really the morning,” said Perry Cooper with Sea-Tac Airport. “That’s when the majority of our flights are outbound … we have our first lines begin from 4-4:30 in the morning as people are looking at 5:30-6 a.m. flights to get out on. You’ll see checkpoint lines busy up until noon.”

Most traveled days will be:

• Friday, Dec. 22: 157,800 travelers
• Thursday, Dec. 21: 154,900 travelers
• Friday, Dec. 15: 152,500 travelers

Least traveled days will be:

• Sunday Dec. 31: 99,700 travelers
• Monday, Jan. 1: 108,700 travelers
• Sunday, Dec. 24: 109,200 travelers

The projections are considerably larger than just one year ago when the Port of Seattle estimated that about 135,000 travelers would move through the airport on each of its busiest days. That was the sixth consecutive year that the airport hit a new high record for travelers. If 2017 beats that, it means the airport hits a new record.

While the holidays are busy, the busiest time to travel through Sea-Tac is during the summer season.

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