New data from ForwardKeys shows marathon weekend air travel is climbing into New York and Chicago, with airlines, hotels and airport concessions all seeing the effect on their books.
New data from ForwardKeys shows marathon weekend air travel is rising into New York and Chicago, with airlines, hotels and airport concessions all seeing the effect on their books. Domestic air travel is set to rise 45% in the week of the New York City marathon in November and 13% in the week of the Chicago marathon in October, according to the data, which draws on Amadeus Travel Intelligence and Amadeus Demand360 hotel figures.
Hotel data tells a similar story. Chicago marathon weekend occupancy currently sits at 85.9%, 1.8 percentage points ahead of the same period last year, with an average daily rate of $364, up 10.2% year on year. New York’s occupancy is softer at 58.1%, down 0.7 percentage points on last year, but its average daily rate has climbed 12.4% to $369, suggesting hoteliers are pricing the event rather than chasing volume.
The international picture matters more for airports than the domestic one. Rome (+48%), Sao Paulo (+34%) and Milan (+12%) lead growing inbound markets to New York, while India is a significant source at both races: arrivals to Chicago are up 14% year on year and now make up 3.8% of the city’s international traffic, led by Delhi at +30%. Indian arrivals to New York are up 12%. The pattern echoes what Amadeus data on India’s Oktoberfest bookings to Munich showed earlier this year: event-driven demand from India is becoming a repeatable line item for schedulers, not a one-off.
Domestically, Texas is the standout source market for both races, lifting arrivals into Chicago by 24% and into New York by 86%. Houston alone is up 32% into Chicago and 121% into New York, with Dallas up 18% and 89% respectively. For carriers and airport route teams weighing capacity around fixed-date events, that is a Sunbelt corridor worth watching well beyond marathon season, particularly as overall passenger volumes keep climbing toward the 9.8 billion global total ACI World reported for 2025.
Length of stay points to an underused commercial opportunity. Short stays of one to five nights account for 88% of domestic arrivals into Chicago and 87.4% into New York, against 48.6% and 52.2% for international visitors, who linger longer. Solo travel dominates both races (61.8% in Chicago, 63.7% in New York), but domestic group bookings of six or more have more than doubled, up 106% into Chicago and 241% into New York, a segment hoteliers and airport F&B operators are better placed to capture than airlines are. Terminal operators expanding premium and group-friendly space, in the way DFW has grown its lounge footprint by 44%, are positioned to take a share of that spend if they market around the date.
“On-trip wellness and fitness is no longer an afterthought for travellers, it is now a driving force of travel itself,” said Jill Boegel, SVP of Commercial, Americas, Hospitality at Amadeus. Chris Heywood, SVP of Public Relations and Chief Communications Officer at Brand USA, added that he hoped to see runners and spectators extend their stays beyond the race weekend itself.
What to do with this
For airports serving Chicago and New York, the practical move is short-term: brief retail and F&B concessionaires on the exact race-week dates, flag the Texas and Indian source markets to route planning, and pass the group-booking growth figures to hotel and ground transport partners who can package longer stays. Airports at other marathon hosts, from Boston to London, should ask ForwardKeys or Amadeus for the equivalent local breakdown before the next race calendar locks in.
