Super Bowl LIV is taking place Sunday in Miami Gardens, Florida between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Fans will travel from all over the country for the chance to see their team make history, which in the case of the Chiefs, would be a moment fifty years in the making. Anticipating an influx of travelers, airlines have announced additional flights from the Bay Area and Kansas City to the Miami metro area for the Super Bowl.

According to Allianz Global Assistance who reviewed Americans’ travel plans* for roundtrip flights landing in Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport between Jan 30-Feb 1 and returning Feb 3-4. West Coast airports including Los Angeles (LAX: +24%) and San Francisco (SFO: +160%) will see healthy increases in air travel over last year, likely spurred by 49ers fans. Kansas City’s airport heads into game day with a modest increase of Florida-bound air travelers (MCI: +45%), indicating that Chiefs fans may prefer to watch the big game from the comfort of their home.

Other significant changes in air traffic over last year’s Super Bowl, which pitted the New England Patriots against the Los Angeles Rams and took place in Atlanta, Georgia, include decreases in known “Pats” destinations – Boston (LOG: -76%), New York City (JFK: -33%). Air travel over Super Bowl weekend from Florida airports are also down this year, reflecting those fans’ possible switch to road trips to the stadium and fans from the Seattle (SEA: -84%) are also turning out in few numbers this year versus last.

Over Super Bowl weekend, a small percentage (3.7%) of travelers are flying from the Kansas City area to the Miami metro area for the game. On the contrary, 7.3% of travelers will hail from the greater San Francisco area, in hopes that the San Francisco 49ers will take home their record-tying sixth Super Bowl title.

In addition to those traveling from San Francisco and Kansas City, similar to last year’s Super Bowl, an impressive percentage still are coming from the New York area (14.2%), likely due to its high population density and significant concentration of both West Coast and Midwest transplants in the Tri-state area.

While I won’t be at the game this year in Miami, I’ll surely be watching in Las Vegas. I have no doubt a ton of Chiefs and 49ers fans will be all over South Florida from South Beach to Fort Lauderdale. I love going to the big game but it’s not without hassles or cheap. So best of luck to both teams and I look forward to another great game!

*Methodology:

The data of U.S. travelers’ 2020 Super Bowl travel plans was gathered by analyzing the number of travelers that went through the online booking process of airfare paths for partners offering Allianz Global Assistance to generate itineraries for roundtrip flights landing in Miami and Fort Lauderdale 1/30 – 2/1/2020 and departing 2/3 – 2/4/2020.

Disclaimer: I work as an ambassador for Allianz Global Assistance (AGA Service Company) and receive financial compensation.

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