These are the 10 airports to avoid if you're flying during Thanksgiving

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These are the 10 airports to avoid if you're flying during Thanksgiving

American Airlines DFW

AP

An American Airlines jet at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

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  • More than 30 million Americans are expected to fly this Thanksgiving holiday season according to Airlines For America.
  • That's a 5.7% increase over 2017.
  • American Airlines expects to carry seven million travelers this Thanksgiving season while Delta Air Lines expects to fly 4.7 million passengers just during the week of Thanksgiving.
  • The busiest day for air travel is expected to be Monday, November 25.
  • US airports are among the busiest in the world.

America will be traveling in droves this Thanksgiving. An estimated 30.6 million people are expected to fly this Thanksgiving holiday period, industry trade group Airlines For America (A4A) said in a release. That's up 5.7% from last year and a whopping 26% from 2010.

In fact, American Airlines, alone, expects to operate nearly 71,000 flights and fly more than seven million passengers during the 12 day period between November 16 and November 27.

Delta expects to carry 4.7 million holiday travelers between November 19 and November 25.

To accommodate all of this additional traffic, US airlines are expected to make an additional 158,000 seats available every day during the heavy travel period. Airlines will deploy additional aircraft and schedule extra flights to ferry holiday travelers.

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According to A4A, the busiest days for air travel during this period is Monday, Nov. 25 followed by Wednesday, Nov. 21.

If you're looking to avoid the crowds, Thanksgiving day is going to be least busy day by a wide margin.

As a result, airports around the country are going to be packed even more so than usual. Last year, five of the 20 busiest airports in the world were located in the US. This included the busiest airport in the world, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International which hosted nearly 104 million passengers.

Read more: These are the 20 busiest airports in the world.

Los Angeles International or LAX is the second busiest airport in the US and the fifth busiest in the world with just under 85 million travelers. Chicago's O'Hare International comes in third place in the US and sixth place worldwide with nearly 80 million passengers annually.

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To give you a better idea of which US airport will likely be the most crowded, here's a breakdown of the 10 busiest airports in the US based on passenger numbers.

busiest US airports

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

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