Holiday crowds at airports and on highways in the US are expected to be even bigger than last year
Published:Monday | December 11, 2023 | 10:55 AM
More Americans are expected to fly or drive far from home over Christmas than did last year, putting a cap on a busy year for travel.
Auto club AAA forecast Monday that 115.2 million people will go 50 miles or more from home during the 10 days between December 23 and New Year's Day. That's 2.2 per cent more than AAA predicted during the comparable stretch last year.
"That desire to get away is stronger than we have seen in a very long time," said AAA spokeswoman Aixa Diaz. "People are willing to adjust their budgets in other areas of their life, but they want to keep travelling."
The AAA predicts that the holiday season will still fall 3 per cent short of record travel in 2019, the last Christmas before COVID-19 hit the United States.
Air travel in the US has already rebounded, surpassing 2019 levels.
The number of travellers going through US airport checkpoints is up 12.4 per cent over last year and 1.4 per cent higher than in 2019, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Travel around the Thanksgiving Day holiday topped 2019 numbers, peaking at 2.9 million — a single-day record for TSA — screened on Sunday, November 26.
Airlines are predicting a blockbuster holiday season.
Airlines for America says 39 million people — about 2.8 million a day on average — will board US flights between December 20 and January 2. The trade group for big US carriers expects about 3 million on the peak days - the Thursday and Friday before Christmas and the four days after the holiday.
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