Nearly 80 million Americans to travel Thanksgiving week, AAA says

Approximately 79.9 million people in the United States will travel at least 50 miles next week, according to AAA’s annual travel report. The data predicted about 1.7 million more people will travel Thanksgiving week this year over last year, about a 2% increase. It also represents a near 3% increase from pre-pandemic numbers. Vice President of AAA Travel Stacey Barber described Thanksgiving as the busiest travel holiday. Analysts expect record numbers of travel by boat, plane, or car, she said in the report.

What’s the most popular mode of travel? Nearly 90% are expected to drive, putting a record 71.7 million people on the road between Nov. 26 and Dec. 2. Driving traffic is expected to rise by about 2%, meaning an additional 1.4 million people traveling by car this year compared to 2023.

AAA projected about 5.8 million people to fly domestically the week of Thanksgiving, a more than 2% bump from 2023, adding about 110,000 travelers. Air travel has grown over 10% compared to pre-pandemic 2019 data.

Nearly 2.3 million planned to use alternate forms of transportation, like train, bus, or cruise. AAA’s data suggested a nearly 9% jump in Thanksgiving travelers using alternate transport compared to 2023, with an over 18% jump since 2019. Bookings for both domestic and international cruises over Thanksgiving are up 20% since last year, according to AAA.