If you’re traveling by plane, train or automobile this holiday season, you’re not alone: it’s projected that travelers will set a record during this year’s holiday season.
AAA Northeast predicts 122.4 million Americans will leave town and travel at least 50 miles from home between Dec. 20 and Jan. 1. This is a 2% increase over 2024.
“The story is that Americans are just really determined to travel,” said Mark Schieldrop, spokesperson for AAA Northeast. “The trend since COVID really has been that travel is a major priority for Americans. In lieu of higher prices across other categories, people are doing what they must do to make travel happen in their lives today.”
Of those holiday travelers, AAA Northeast predicts 89% of them will be traveling on the roads.
With snow predicted for Tuesday, that could throw a bit of a “wild card” into travel plans; Schieldrop urges travelers to look at the forecast for their destination and see if they can rearrange travel plans if necessary.
“If Tuesday is looking to be snowy, we might be looking at a white Christmas but some white knuckle driving ahead of the holiday,” he said.
Gas prices in Massachusetts are a penny higher than this time last year. On average, gas costs $2.97 a gallon, which is above the national average of $2.85 a gallon.
The best time to travel according to the experts: the earlier the better. Highway traffic is expected to build up around lunchtime and be heavy until 8 p.m. AAA Northeast advises drivers to take the time to get a vehicle checkup prior to long road trips, making sure the battery and tire pressure are adequate.
“There’s nothing worse than getting stuck on the roadside when you’re on your way to spend time with your family over the holidays,” Schieldrop said.
For those travelers taking to the skies, AAA projects a record 8.03 million people will fly domestically this holiday season, a 2.3% increase from last year.
Ed Freni, executive director of aviation at Massport, said Logan International Airport will see 135,000 travelers each day on both inbound and outbound flights. That’s slightly up from Thanksgiving.
“I mean, it’s good and it’s manageable and we’re just doing everything we can here to make sure everybody has a smooth, easy flight and an enjoyable flight,” Freni said.
Freni added that this holiday season won’t quite reach the record the airport set during summer when more than 170,000 people flew inbound and outbound at Logan each day.
As usual, Massport advises all travelers to arrive two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international flights, and to always check with airline carriers for any schedule changes. TSA workers will accept real IDs, passports and other forms of identification.
Nationally, AAA said this is the first time that the number of domestic air travelers over the year-end period is expected to exceed 8 million. The top year-end U.S destinations include Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. For those travelers going overseas, the most popular destinations are Cancún, Mexico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Cozumel, Mexico.
Travel by other modes is expected to increase by 9%, with 4.9 million people traveling by bus, train or cruise ship.A spokesman for Amtrak said the rail service set an all-time record for ridership this fiscal year with 34.5 million guests nationwide. The final tally of train riders and information about Amtrak’s busiest day won’t be available until the end of January.
