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Airlines on both sides of the Atlantic are gearing up for their busiest Christmas season yet as tens of millions of passengers take to the skies.

In the UK, carriers will fly 6.1 million seats between December 20 and January 2, a 5 percent increase on the previous record set in 2019, according to aviation data company Cirium.

The most popular international destinations for departures from the UK are Amsterdam, Dublin, Geneva, Paris and Tenerife.

Across the Atlantic, a record 54 million passengers are estimated to fly on US carriers between December 19 and January 6, according to trade group Airlines for America (A4A).

US airlines are offering 140,000 more seats per day than they did during the 2023 holiday season, A4A added. Orlando, Las Vegas, Cancún, Fort Lauderdale and Honolulu are among the popular destinations.

The Christmas record is the closing chapter of a busy year for UK and US airlines, and reflects continued strong demand for travel since the pandemic ended.

Airline bosses believe consumers are prioritizing holidays and travel over other discretionary spending, even after years of high inflation.

However, ticket prices fell in many leading markets in 2024, and some airlines including Ryanair, Europe’s largest, reported a decrease in income in summer.

In the UK, passengers are also increasingly choosing to travel on Christmas Day itself.

More than 800 flights are scheduled to depart UK airports on Christmas Day this year, up a fifth on 2019 and 47 per cent more than a decade ago.

Low cost carrier easyJet and London’s Airport is Heathrow Airport one of the major companies predicting their worst winter holiday season ever.

Sophie Dekkers, easyJet’s chief commercial officer, said the carrier would fly 4.1 million customers across its European network during the peak period of Christmas and New Year, with the busiest day which is expected on December 27.

Paris, Geneva and Tenerife are among easyJet’s most popular destinations.

“The winter holidays are an important time of year for travel for millions of people,” he said.

Executives at Heathrow airport will be hoping for no further disruption to flights, after more than 100 were canceled at the weekend due to high winds.

“Our focus remains on ensuring smooth, happy journeys – whether it’s helping passengers get away for Christmas to reunite with loved ones, or ensuring cargo reaches its destination on time,” the Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said in a statement released before the weekend crash.

In the US, United Airlines expects passenger numbers to rise 12 percent from last year to 9.9mn, and its busiest days will include Friday December 27 and Saturday December 28.

The strong end to the year comes as global airlines prepare for a record year in 2025.

Passenger numbers are expected to reach 5.2bn in 2025, an increase of almost 7 percent compared to 2024, and the first time that the number of passengers has exceeded the 5bn mark, global lobby group International Air Transport Association said.

The figure represents slower growth than the 10.7 percent achieved this year, with Willie Walsh, IATA’s director-general, announcing that the figures represent a “return to more normal levels of growth after the extraordinary recovery from the pandemic”.