It will be a record year for Thanksgiving travelers, with 81.8 million people expected to journey at least 50 miles during the holiday period beginning on November 25, according to AAA.
That's a 2 percent increase over last year's Thanksgiving travel numbers, representing an additional 1.6 million travelers. The majority of those travelers — 90 percent — will be doing so in their cars.
Nick Chabarria, a spokesperson for AAA, said that flight costs were higher this year, while rental car costs were a bit lower.
“It’s sort of a mixed bag when we’re looking at pricing this Thanksgiving compared to last year,” Chabarria said. “Airfare is up a little bit, hotels are down, rental cars are down, gas prices right around where we were this time last year.”
AAA has advised drivers to watch for potential congestion around Thanksgiving, particularly on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons before the holiday, which it anticipates will be the busiest travel times.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving is expected to be the busiest return day.
Uncertainty surrounding the government shutdown and its effect on air travel has caused a shift in some Americans' travel bookings, with more travelers opting to take a train or a bus for their Thanksgiving trips this year than in previous years.
Bus and train bookings have increased 12 percent year-over-year, according to a Reuters report. Several departure dates are seeing 20 to 30 percent year-over-year booking increases, according to a spokesperson for Wanderu, a travel booking search engine. Areas with particularly high bus and train bookings include St. Louis, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
Kai Boysan, CEO of Flix North America, the parent company of Greyhound, told Reuters the company is monitoring the influx of travelers to its services and adjusting bus availability accordingly.
"We anticipate more travelers may turn to ground transportation in the days ahead, and we’re monitoring demand closely and prepared to add capacity where needed to ensure people can keep moving," Boysan said.
On November 7, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to cut back on their offered flights due to a lack of air traffic controllers — who were working without pay during the shutdown — to manage the aircraft.
That order was lifted on Monday. The FAA said that enough air traffic controllers had returned to allow for more flights ahead of Thanksgiving.
"Controllers have returned to their posts and normal operations can resume," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in his announcement that the emergency flight reduction order had been lifted. "Now we can refocus our efforts on surging controller hiring and building the brand new, state of the art air traffic control system the American people deserve.
More than 6 million people in the U.S. are expected to fly to their Thanksgiving gatherings this year, a 2 percent increase over last year's number of air travelers.
Travelers are advised to keep up to date on road and traffic conditions on their planned routes and to keep an eye on weather forecasts to prepare for any potential delays or disruptions on their travel days.
