Millions gear up for travel over Thanksgving holiday, AAA says

A healthy consumer confidence will help create the largest Thanksgiving travel volume in more than a decade, according to AAA Oklahoma.

AAA estimates 50.9 million Americans will trek at least 50 miles from home this Thanksgiving, a 3.3 percent increase over the previous year. This will mark the highest Thanksgiving travel volume since 2005, with 1.6 million more people taking to the nation’s roads, skies, rails and waterways compared with last year.

The West South Central Region, in which Oklahoma is included, will see more at least 5.2 million people taking Thanksgiving weekend trips of 50 miles or longer, a 2.7 percent increase over 2016 and the largest number of travelers since 2007, according to AAA Oklahoma.

Nearly 4.7 million of those travelers, or 91 percent, will be traveling by car. Travel by air and other forms of transport (cruises, bus and trains) also is projected to rise for the 2017 Thanksgiving travel period.

The Thanksgiving holiday travel period is defined as Wednesday through Sunday.

“Thanksgiving kicks off the start of a busy holiday season, and more Oklahomans and Americans overall will travel to spend time with friends and family this year,” Leslie Gamble, public and government affairs manager for AAA Oklahoma, said in a statement.

“Nationally, a strong economy and labor market are generating rising incomes and higher consumer confidence, fueling a strong year for the travel industry, which will continue into the holiday season.”

In October, 129,805 passengers boarded a flight from Tulsa International Airport, said Stephanie Chester, community relations manager for Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust. That was an 8.3 percent increase over the previous October and the highest activity at the airport since October 2008, she said.

“I was looking at our activity numbers for November,” Chester said by telephone. “It looks pretty consistent with the amount of travelers that we’re kind of expecting for the holiday rush. But it definitely will be busiest here on Nov. 22 (Wednesday) and Nov. 27 (Monday), which is pretty typical for an airport.

“It is the holiday season, so just allowing yourself more time than you normally would at our airport is definitely necessary.”

According to AAA, the largest growth in holiday travel is by air travel, at 5 percent, with 3.95 million travelers. According to AAA’s Leisure Travel Index, travelers taking flights pay the lowest average in five years for a round-trip flight for the top 40 domestic routes. At $157, on average, that is a 23 percent fare drop year-over-year.

Travel by trains and other modes (including buses and cruises) is expected to increase 1.1 percent to 1.48 million travelers.