NEVADA — The American Automobile Association is projecting record-breaking travel this holiday season.
AAA reports 112.5 million Americans will travel later this month during the holiday season. This means more than one-third of the nation will be taking to the roads.
According to the service, it will be a 4.4 percent increase over last year and the most since AAA has been tracking holiday travel.
“This is projected to be the busiest holiday travel season in our country’s history,” said Michael Blasky, spokesperson for AAA Nevada. “There will be almost 5 million more people traveling in 2018 compared with last year."
More of AAA’s 2018 Holiday Travel Forecast is below:
- Hitting the Road: The vast majority of people — more than 102 million — will hit the road between Saturday, Dec. 22 and Tuesday, Jan. 1, an increase of 4.4 percent over last year’s traffic. Nationally, gas prices have fallen compared to this same time last year. Gas prices averaged $2.46 for the first week of December, which is two cents less per gallon than one year ago.
- Fuller skies: More than 6.7 million Americans will take flight, up about 4.2 percent from last year. Expect the nation’s airports to be extremely busy — this is AAA’s highest projected air travel since 2003.
- Car rental costs rising: Travelers can expect to pay the highest prices for car rentals in 10 years. At $76, the average daily rate is 3 percent higher than last year.
- Hotel prices mixed: Travelers will also pay a bit more at AAA Two Diamond hotels, where prices are 1 percent more than last year, or $122 per night. Conversely, the average rate for AAA Three Diamond hotels has fallen 3 percent to an average nightly cost of $152.
- Busiest days at the airport: Saturday, Dec. 22, Sunday, Dec. 23 and Wednesday, Dec. 26 will be the busiest days to fly and at the airports. Fewer holiday travelers choose to fly on Christmas Eve (Monday, Dec. 24) and Christmas Day (Tuesday, Dec. 25), which are the lightest travel days around the Christmas holiday.
