COLUMBUS – High gas prices, coupled with concerns about inflation, may have slowed the growth in travel projections for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday but the auto club AAA still predicts the number of Ohioans crowding roadways and airports will be the fourth highest on record.
The auto club predicts more than 2.2 million Ohioans will join the 54.6 million Americans who will travel at least 50 miles from home between Nov. 23 and Nov. 27.
While that represents an increase of greater than 1% over 2021, slightly fewer people will drive in Ohio.
“That’s because we’re seeing a lot of travelers shift back to air travel and other modes of transportation that maybe didn’t take these forms of transportation over the last couple of years because of the pandemic,” Kimberly Schwind, AAA Ohio public affairs director, said.
Travelers were more comfortable traveling by car during the COVID-19 pandemic but, as conditions continue to improve, Schwind says travelers are returning to the air and highway traffic is starting to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Busiest times to travel by car:
- Wednesday, Nov. 23: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
- Thursday, Nov. 24: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- Friday, Nov. 25: 4-8 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 26: 4-8 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 27: 4-8 p.m.
-Source: AAA/INRIX
The auto club expects a record 216,000 Ohioans to fly, up 9.1% from last Thanksgiving and nearly 15,000 more than pre-pandemic averages.
Nationally, more than 4.5 million Americans will fly. That’s up 8% from 2021 and nearly 99% of the 2019 volume. The national air travel projections are also 22% higher than the 10-year pre-pandemic average.
Overall, this year’s national travel projections are more than 10% higher than the 10-year average of 2012 to 2021. That means travel volumes are back to 98% of pre-pandemic volumes around the U.S. and 96% in Ohio.