SEATAC, Wash. — Passenger volume at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) was down from projected holiday levels but still broke a record, officials said Monday.
From Wednesday through Sunday, 707,000 people traveled through SEA Airport on arriving, departing or connecting flights, according to a SEA Airport spokesperson. This is 8% less than originally forecasted.
However, the airport said holiday travel volumes were still up 3.5% from last year, and there was a 2.6% increase over 2019.
It was a record for the holiday period, but the airport didn’t get close to breaking any individual daily records. That wasn’t a surprise as the airport said the holidays are not the busiest times of the year at SEA. 2024 saw a record number of passengers at SEA Airport on Aug. 18 when 198,000 people traveled.
Sunday, as projected, was the busiest travel day of the holiday with 171,500 passengers flying through Seattle, although it was 5,500 fewer than expected. Wednesday was originally forecasted to have the same number of travelers as Sunday at 177,000 people, but in reality, there were 15,000 fewer passengers.
Saturday’s travel volumes had the largest gap between the projected and actual travelers with 19,500 fewer passengers than expected.
Thanksgiving Day had the fewest travelers of the weekend at 88,000 people.
It was a big travel weekend nationally as well. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 3,087,392 people at U.S. security checkpoints on Sunday, marking the most ever passengers screened in a single day. There has only been one other day that broke 3 million screenings, which was July 4, according to a TSA spokesperson.
