AAA projects 79.9 million travelers will head 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving holiday travel period*. For the first time, AAA’s forecast includes the Tuesday before and the Monday after Thanksgiving Day to better capture the flow of holiday travelers. This year’s projection of nearly 80 million travelers is an increase of 1.7 million people compared to last year and 2 million more than in 2019. “Thanksgiving is the busiest holiday for travel, and this year we’re expecting to set new records across the board, from driving to flying and cruising,” said Stacey Barber, Vice President of AAA Read more
Thanksgiving
A violent car explosion at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, New York is causing major traffic headaches on one of the busiest travel days of the year. A car that was apparently carrying two people accelerated on the approach to the Rainbow Bridge, flew into the air and exploded earlier today. Multiple reports say both people were killed. Details were scarce but CNN reported the car had earlier been seen in the parking lot of a nearby U.S. casino. CNN at one point said Buffalo Niagara International Airport has closed to both international arriving and departing flights. But Buffalo Read more
There’s still more evidence of a travel rebound today. U.S. Transportation Security Administration stats for Wednesday, the day before American Thanksgiving, show that 2,311,979 travellers went through security at U.S. airports. That’s more than double the roughly 1.1 million figure from last year, and nearly 90% of the roughly 2.62 million in 2019. It’s also the largest TSA passenger figure since the start of the pandemic. On Tuesday, two days prior to Thanksgiving Day, TSA processed 2,207,949 passengers. That’s close to the 2,435,170 people who went through security in 2019. Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week are usually the busiest Read more
It turns out that the folks at the Transportation Security Administration in the U.S. have a great sense of humour. With the holiday crush looming for U.S. Thanksgiving, the TSA social media team has posted some do’s and dont’s for holiday travel. Specifically, they’ve outlined what is considered a solid Thanksgiving meal item you can take on board the plane, and what’s a liquid (and therefore not allowed, unless it’s the right size). As well as clogging arteries, Thanksgiving can clog American airports. To keep things running smoothly at security checkpoints over the next few days, the TSA has announced which Read more
A survey of U.S. travellers suggests a major travel rebound is underway. The latest monthly report from Longwoods International finds that the number of American travellers with trip plans in the next six months now stands at 91%, the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic and up from a low of 57% last December. And the percentage of travellers planning to change upcoming travel plans because of COVID-19 has declined to 46%, down from a pandemic peak of 85% in April of last year. The study, undertaken on October 27, also found that the steady decline of COVID-19 across Read more
