U.S. Thanksgiving travel numbers are expected to break records this year.
In a statement, AAA expanded their annual Thanksgiving travel forecast to include the Tuesday before and the Monday after for the first time, covering November 26th to December 2nd.
Stacey Barber, Vice President of AAA Travel, said that “Thanksgiving is the busiest holiday for travel” and this year would be expected to break records.
They are projecting nearly 80 million travellers for this year, an increase of 1.7 million people compared to 2023.
It is also two million more than pre-pandemic numbers recorded in 2019.
The vast majority are expected to travel by car, just under 90%.
A possible factor for this increase is petrol prices coming in lower this Thanksgiving season compared to 2023.
Just over 7% will travel by plane and 2.8% will take an alternate form of transport outside of these two options, including buses, cruises and trains.