Over 115M people expected to travel during holidays, airport totals to break records: AAA

The number of Americans traveling during the year-end holiday travel period this year will reach the second-highest level in more than two decades, according to AAA.

The organization predicted on Monday that 115.2 million people will take trips at least 50 miles away from where they live during the period from Dec. 23 to New Year's Day this year. That is a 2.2% increase over the prior year and the second-highest number since AAA started tracking holiday travel in 2000.

This year is expected to have 3.8 million fewer Christmas and New Year’s travelers than the record-setting 119 million before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.

"This year-end holiday forecast, with an additional 2.5 million travelers compared to last year, mirrors what AAA Travel has been observing throughout 2023. More Americans are investing in travel, despite the cost, to make memories with loved ones and experience new places," Paula Twidale, AAA's senior vice president of travel, said in a statement.

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Winter holiday travel via planes, buses, trains and cruises is expected to break the record levels set for those categories in 2019, AAA projected.

About 7.5 million people will take flights during the holiday period, setting airports up to become the "busiest they’ve ever been" in the 10-day time frame since 2000, AAA projected. In 2019, 7.33 million people traveled via plane during the same period.

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The Transportation Security Administration has said it observed "increased travel volume" around Thanksgiving and was anticipating an "uptick ahead of the Christmas and the new year holidays."

Transportation on buses, trains and cruises is expected to post a 10.7% annual increase this year, hitting over 4 million, AAA said. That is also 4.1% higher than 2019.

Meanwhile, AAA forecast a large majority of holiday travelers – almost 104 million – will use their cars this year, according to AAA’s forecast. Only 2019, when 108 million people drove for the holidays, will top that.

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AAA’s Christmas and New Year’s travel predictions come about a month after its Thanksgiving projection suggested that the travel period would see its "third-highest" levels since 2000, with 49.1 million people slated to take vehicles, 4.7 million people to travel via planes and 1.55 million to take cruises, buses and trains.