AAA forecasts 43.6 million travelers for Thanksgiving

The AAA auto club is predicting that 43.6 million people will take trips longer than 50 miles from home for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The organization released its traditional holiday forecast Tuesday. The prediction calls for 39.1 million travelers to take trips by automobile for Thanksgiving, and 3.14 million people to take flights.

The number of drivers would be a 0.7 percent increase from the number of people who were on the road for Thanksgiving last year, AAA said. The number of flights would be a decline from 3.2 million last year.

AAA said the average amount of money travelers will spend on their trip would decline from $554 last year to $498, and the average distance of their trips would go from 706 miles last year to 588 this year.

AAA President Robert Darbelnet said the numbers show a steady recover in holiday travel since the economic panic of 2008.

“Thanksgiving travel hit a decade low in 2008 when only 37.8 million Americans traveled,” Darbelnet said in a statement. “Since that year we have seen a steady increase in the number of travelers taking to the roads and skies for the holiday. Americans continue to find ways to economize their budgets so they can gather around the holiday table to carve the turkey.”

---