Nearly 82 million Americans are expected to travel during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, according to estimates from AAA.
More specifically, AAA is projecting that 81.8 million people will travel at least 50 miles over the holiday period. The calculation does not just include Thanksgiving itself, which falls on Thursday, November 27. Rather, the holiday period is measured from Tuesday, November 25, through the weekend after Thanksgiving to Monday, December 1.
For greater perspective, AAA projected that 79.9 million traveled for the holidays last year, with the actual number resting around 80.2 million.
If the figure holds, it will result in the most travelers over the Thanksgiving holiday in the last seven years. In 2019, there were 77.8 million travelers, followed by a steep drop off in the year of the coronavirus pandemic, with only 56.8 million travelers per the same holiday period in 2020. The number of travelers has continued to creep up, jumping from 73.6 million in 2021 and exceeding 80 million in 2024.
“Thanksgiving travel numbers are always impressive because this holiday has become synonymous with heading out of town to spend time with loved ones,” Stacey Barber, vice president of AAA Travel, said in a statement.
“People are willing to brave the crowds and make last-minute adjustments to their plans to make lifelong memories, whether it’s visiting extended family or meeting up with friends,” she added.
AAA also provided a breakdown, predicting that the bulk of travelers — 73 million — will travel by car.
“…that’s nearly 90 percent of Thanksgiving travelers and an additional 1.3 million people on the road compared to last Thanksgiving. That number could end up being higher if some air travelers decide to drive instead of fly following recent flight cancellations,” AAA reported.
Additionally, 6.07 million travelers are expected to travel via air, and 2.48 million are in the “other” category, which includes bus, train, and cruise.
These figures come after the end of the Democrat government shutdown, which raised concerns over air travel, specifically, as more flights were slated to be slashed for safety reasons amid staffing shortages. However, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Sunday that the FAA determined that normal flight operations can resume after what he described as “multiple days of positive staffing with air traffic controllers in our towers.”
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