Nearly 80 million people will travel 50 miles or more over the extended U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, an increase of 1.3 million, or about 2%, from 2023, AAA said.
Of the estimated 79.86 million holiday travelers, 71.74 million will be taking to the roads, up by 1.9% from last year.
The auto club also predicted on Monday that 5.84 million individuals will travel by air, up from 5.73 million in 2023. The organization also said it expects 2.28 million individuals will travel by other forms of transportation, compared to 2.09 million last year.
AAA said that its Thanksgiving travel forecast for the first time includes the Tuesday before and the Monday after the holiday to better capture the flow of holiday travelers.
The number of passengers projected to travel by air on Thanksgiving is also expected to exceed the 5.28 million who flew in pre-pandemic 2019 by nearly 11%, AAA said.
The organization forecast that international travel over Thanksgiving is expected to rise by 23% year to year, as the cost of overseas travel has fallen by 5% from 2023. Domestic air travelers will pay about 3% more than last year, the group added.
AAA said the 71.74 million people expected to travel by car this year is above the 70.6 million people who drove during the holiday in 2019.
The auto club also said gasoline prices are expected to be lower this holiday than last. The average U.S. retail price of gasoline last year was $3.26/gal, the organization said, adding that falling oil prices could push the national average below $3/gal by next week.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
-- Reporting by Cory Wilchek, cwilchek@opisnet.com and Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 18, 2024 11:48 ET (16:48 GMT)
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