Nearly 277,000 passengers traveled through BNA over the Thanksgiving holiday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The holidays are always a busy time for travel, with many people heading to the airport to visit their loved ones who live miles away.

The increased travel volume is apparent from the annual sight of traffic backed down the interstates in Nashville come Thanksgiving, but just how busy does the airport actually get?

Data from the Nashville International Airport (BNA) shows there has been a slight increase in passengers taking flights to and from the state’s capital over the last three years, with nearly 277,000 people traveling through the airport between Nov. 17 and Nov. 26 this year.

While that’s only about 7,000 more passengers than during the same 10-day period last year, it’s an 18% increase from the 234,000 passengers who arrived at and departed from the airport over the same holiday period just two years ago.

The peak travel days have remained largely the same each year, with traffic at the airport always starting to increase on the weekend before Thanksgiving. BNA averages 30,000 passengers on the day before Thanksgiving, which is among the top three days with the most activity.

However, the single largest travel day for the last three years has been the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when most people are returning home. This year, nearly 34,000 passengers traveled through the Nashville Airport on Sunday, Nov. 26.

It was a busy day for most airports in the U.S. this year as, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), just over 2.9 million people were screened at airports nationwide on Sunday, Nov. 26 — a new record for the agency.

There were around 32,000 people who took flights to and from BNA on Wednesday, Nov. 22 and Friday, Nov. 17 this year. The day of Thanksgiving is always the least traveled day at the Nashville Airport with only 13,000 passengers each year.

While there were no record-breaking days at BNA over the holiday period this year, the slight exponential growth in people taking trips through the airport may be a factor of the city’s growing population and subsequently, the expansion of the airport.

Several new construction projects were completed this year to help accommodate growth, including a new 200,000 square foot lobby with 24 TSA screening lanes, a new satellite concourse and an international arrivals facility (IAF).

A few additional projects, such as an on-site Hilton Hotel and terminal garage, are still in store as a part of the airport’s $1.4 billion expansion plan .