KCI is filtering thousands of passengers through its airport over the annual winter holiday travel season.

The Kansas City Aviation Department expects to serve more than 509,000 passengers at KCI Airport during the 2015/2016 winter holiday period on 4,780 arrivals and departures. Peak days will see approximately 37,000 travelers in and out of KCI.

Planes are projected to be 80 percent to 90 percent full over the winter holiday period, with the busiest travel days expected to be Sunday, January 3; Friday, December 18; Sunday, December 27, and Wednesday, December 23, respectively. Consistent with historical patterns, the lightest travel days are expected to be Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The total number of revenue passengers boarding aircraft in scheduled service volumes are expected to range from 1.9 million to 2.4 million during the 17-day period, with the busiest days seeing more than 10 percent more passengers than the average day in 2015.

Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, projects that 38.1 million passengers will fly on U.S. airlines during the 17-day period from Friday, December 18 through Sunday, January 3. That is an increase of more than three percent or approximately 73,000 more travelers nationwide each of those days from the comparable period a year ago. Last year, 36.9 million customers were estimated to have traveled by air. A4A projects that 12 percent of those traveling will be on international flights.