Booking a Private Jet for the Holidays: Thanksgiving, Art Basel, Aspen

The weeks from Thanksgiving to New Year are some of the busiest of the year for private flying, and the best aircraft go first. Here is the 2026 holiday calendar, what the 2025 flight data shows, and how far ahead the people who book these trips say you should commit.

Holiday private flying has one simple rule: the jet you want is a fixed resource, and everyone wants it the same week. A charter operator has a set number of aircraft and crews, and on Thanksgiving Tuesday or the Saturday before Christmas they are booked in the same direction, mostly south to Florida and west to the ski resorts. Prices follow, but the bigger problem is choice. Booking early is what gets you the right aircraft at a sensible departure time, not whatever is left over.

This guide is for New York flyers. It lists the 2026–27 peak dates, shows what the 2025 data says about the holiday rush, and summarises the booking lead times published by charter companies. For the bigger picture of flying private from the city, see our New York private-jet guide.

The 2026–27 holiday calendar

These are the weeks that fill first on New York routes. Dates are from the calendar and, for Art Basel, from the fair's own website.

Holiday dates: US federal calendar. Art Basel dates: artbasel.com. Ski-season peaks (MLK weekend, Presidents' Day week) as listed by Elysium Jet for Aspen.

What the 2025 data shows

There is no official count of holiday private flights, but the industry tracker WingX counts private-jet departures every week, and Private Jet Card Comparisons publishes the figures. The 2025 numbers show the pattern clearly. The week before Thanksgiving was the busy one: 57,353 US departures, up 8% on the same week of 2024. Thanksgiving week itself fell to 47,943 departures, down 16% on the week before but still up 3% year on year. In other words, people fly out early and stay put over the holiday.

Christmas followed the same shape. Week 51 had 53,186 US departures (up 2% year on year), and the last week of the year dropped to 44,402 (down 17% on the week before, up 4% year on year). Florida went the other way: its departures rose 8% in that final week to 8,191, while Texas and California fell. By our calculation from the same WingX figures, Florida's share of all US private-jet departures rose from about 14% in week 51 to about 18% in week 52.

The same pressure shows up in the wider air-traffic system. For Thanksgiving 2025 the FAA expected more than 360,000 flights over the holiday period, with the busiest day, Tuesday 25 November, at more than 52,000 flights. Those figures cover all traffic the FAA handles, not only private jets, but they show why the days around the holiday are crowded.

How far ahead to book

No one publishes an official booking deadline, so the honest answer is a range. These are the lead times charter companies themselves recommend:

Read the table from the top. For a ski trip over Christmas, late October is already the right time to start, and the 8–12 week window for Aspen means Christmas week is close to the edge of it now. For Thanksgiving to Florida, the shorter 4–6 week window points to the first days of November at the latest. Stratos Jet Charters puts it simply: the main concern at Christmas is aircraft availability, and early planning gives you more aircraft options, better-positioned planes and fewer scheduling conflicts.

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Thanksgiving: the Florida and family week

Thanksgiving is the start of the season. The 2025 data shows the rush building in the week before the holiday, so the days just before Thanksgiving are the most contested. Florida is the main destination from New York. Our route guides cover the airports and flight times: Teterboro to Miami and the Teterboro Airport guide for the departure side, including its FBOs and rules.

The return is the other half of the trip. Book both legs together rather than leaving the return open, so the aircraft and crew are committed for both dates.

Art Basel Miami Beach: one week, one city

Art Basel Miami Beach 2026 opens with VIP days on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December, and the public days run from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 December at the Miami Beach Convention Center, according to the fair's website. Because the fair opens with its VIP days, the trip falls at the very start of December, only a week after Thanksgiving. Opa-Locka Executive (OPF) is one of Miami's main private-jet airports; our Teterboro to Miami guide explains the airport options.

Christmas, New Year and Aspen

Aspen is the hardest holiday destination to book, and the reasons are physical rather than commercial. Aspen/Pitkin County Airport sits at 7,820 feet (Wikipedia). It does not permit aircraft with a wingspan over 95 feet, and is closed from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., with no departures after 10:30 p.m., according to the airport. Elysium Jet says Aspen demand is oversubscribed from December through March and recommends booking 8 to 12 weeks ahead for Christmas and New Year. Fewer jets qualify and winter days are short, so a late departure from New York can end at a diversion airport.

One date to keep in mind for next season: the airport will be closed from 4 April to 19 November 2027 for runway reconstruction, according to its website. The 2026–27 Christmas peak is not affected. Our Westchester to Aspen guide covers the jets that qualify and the ski-season rules in detail.

Jet cards have holiday rules too

If you fly on a jet card rather than on-demand charter, the holidays are usually “peak days” with stricter terms. Private Jet Card Comparisons, which tracks jet-card programs, put the average number of peak days at 45.3 in the third quarter of 2026. It says peak days typically have longer callouts (the notice you must give before a flight), longer cancellation deadlines, and providers can often shift departures by as much as plus or minus four hours. Check your card's peak-day calendar before you plan around a fixed departure time.

Can empty legs help at the holidays?

Sometimes. Empty legs are one-way flights a jet has to fly anyway to reposition, and they are sold at a discount. The 2025 data shows why they appear: when many jets fly south before a holiday, many of them have to come back north. The catch is that an empty leg follows the jet's schedule, not yours. Blade lists 24 to 72 hours as the typical window for last-minute and empty-leg bookings, so treat them as a bonus for flexible travellers, not a plan for Christmas Day. Our guide to empty legs from New York explains how to find them.

How the price works over the holidays

We do not quote fixed holiday prices, because there are none. Private charter is priced per aircraft, not per seat: one passenger or six pay the same for the same jet. Blade notes that pricing rises sharply as a holiday approaches, which is another reason to book early. The jet size matters as much as the date; our guides to private-jet pricing and choosing between light, midsize and heavy jets explain the trade-offs. The only reliable number for your trip is a live estimate for your exact dates.

Frequently asked questions

Part of the NY Jet Desk guides — data and route guides for flying private from New York.