AAA Thanksgiving Travel Forecast Predicts Highest Number Of Travelers Since 2001

Thanksgiving marks one of the busiest travel periods every single year. Rylie Fletcher with AAA says this year with all the modes of transportation combined, numbers will skyrocket. 

They expect more than 55 million Americans to travel. It will be the 3rd busiest Thanksgiving travel forecast since 2001

“The next top 2 were 2005 was the first and 2019 was the second, so this is almost catching up to 2019 travel,” Fletcher said.

As people walked through downtown Tulsa, we asked what they had lined up, by a sign with a simple question: Traveling for Thanksgiving?

Chelsea, Peter and Larissa stopped by.

Larissa is new to Tulsa and says she’s excited to go back home for a bit.

“I’m gonna go see my family. I just moved here from Ohio, so I’m going to see them,” she said. 

Chelsea is also from Ohio and has similar plans.

“I’m going back home to Columbus, Ohio, where I’m from and I’ll just be there for 5 or 6 days just spending time with family,” she said. 

Both are choosing to fly home since there are 3 states to cover by car.

Chelsea says there was no chance she was driving.

“That’s just not even an option,” she said. 

However, Fletcher says because the gas prices are lower, more people are likely to drive this year, since it could be cheaper than a plane ticket.

“40 million of those travelers are driving,” she said. 

Peter is still deciding when he’ll drive to Houston to see his family.

"Come to think of it, maybe coming on Tuesday would be a better idea,” he said. 

But planning ahead could backfire.

“I’m flying the day beforehand and I’m gonna be flying back on Sunday so I’m a little bit scared because I feel like a lot of people aren’t also flying on Thanksgiving, they’re going the day before,” Larissa said.

Fletcher says she’s right.

“We're also starting to see Tuesday, and Monday surrounding Thanksgiving as being busy travel days,” she said. 

Whether you travel by car or plane, it’s just the nature of the holiday season to be busy.

AAA says if you're traveling, it's important to have everything ready, whether that's getting to the airport early or staying up to date on your vehicle maintenance, so you don’t pack stress along with your other belongings.