As we mentioned in an earlier post, it’s really important to plan ahead for holiday travel. With that in mind, you might want to book your Thanksgiving travel tickets now. This year is expected to set a new record for travel in the days surrounding the holiday.
Between November 18 and 29, some 27.3 million people are expected to take to the skies, up 2.5 percent from last year. If this holds true, it would break the current record set in 2006 and 2007, where 26.2 million people flew for Thanksgiving.
That works out to about 2.27 million people on each day.
Why the increase? The primary factor seems to be the drop in fares, as airlines reduce prices in order to encourage people to fly. Prices are the lowest they’ve been since 2011, which means more flights.
With a stronger economy and high consumer confidence, low fares have resulted in more people willing to fly to see family for Thanksgiving.
While there will be more seats available to accommodate for the increase in traffic, if you’re planning on traveling for Thanksgiving, you’ll still face larger crowds than normal.
“While more people are flying, there will be more than an adequate number of seats available,” says John Heimlich, vice president and chief economist for trade group Airlines for America.
Just how large those crowds are depends on a lot of factors, such as where you’re flying from, where you’re going, and what days you plan on flying. If you’re looking to beat the masses, consider flying from or to smaller airports. However, depending on where you’re headed, that could mean higher costs for ground transportation.
If you are flying for the holiday, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is expected to be the busiest, so you may want to avoid making your trip on that day. Thanksgiving itself is expected to be pretty light, because few people want to fly on the actual holiday.
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