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50 million people expected to travel ahead of Thanksgiving holiday, AAA says

Posted at 6:05 PM, Nov 21, 2022
and last updated 2022-11-21 21:05:06-05

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — With most Americans traveling with their families for the holiday, airports and roads are expected to be busy.

AAA is expecting this year to be one of the busiest holiday seasons in the last three years reaching pre-pandemic levels as far as travel is concerned.

AAA is predicting more than 50 million people will be traveling ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. That prediction reaches pre-pandemic levels with the sheer volume of travelers reaching 98 percent of the numbers seen back in 2019.

"We're going to have the most expensive gasoline for the month of November that we have seen in years. We're also going to have the third busiest travel day of the past 20 years."

A whopping 49 million holiday travelers are expected to drive to Thanksgiving destinations, while roughly 4.5 million people are expected to take the friendly skies and travel by plane.

"About an 8 percent increase for airline travel this year compared to last year. That's not really a surprising number as more people are comfortable flying, and there are fewer restrictions on airplanes when it comes to masks and things like that. But, it also means more Americans are going to have to deal with the challenges of air travel."

Experts advise that you plan ahead, accounting for things like travel time to the airport, parking availability and the status of your flight.

Also, if you plan to hit the roadways this Thanksgiving holiday, you want to make sure you have that routine maintenance on your car.

"You want to make sure that your car fully passes an inspection because if you can do things now preventatively in the rare chance you are going to have a problem to avoid some real challenges along the road. It will avoid canceling a trip or getting stuck on the side of the road, which no one wants to do."

For more information to get you prepared for this Thanksgiving holiday, you can visit our ktnv.com/traffic.