Thanksgiving Gas Prices Are Lowest in Years

Nationwide, AAA predicts 42 million Americans will take to the highway over Thanksgiving, enjoying a national average gas price of $2.06.

Thanksgiving is the largest American travel holiday, ahead of the Fourth of July and year-end holiday travel, she said.

The lower gas prices have meant that drivers will be more likely to travel longer distances and to stop by convenience stores to buy snacks than past year.

On average, gas prices this year are already far lower than last year’s average prices.

AAA expects the busiest day of the holiday week to be November 29.

Thanksgiving 2015 will be like every other major American holiday – around 90% of travelers will be driving. However, prices could be responsible for the increase in drivers traveling more than 200 miles for the holiday.

The state’s average price per gallon is now at $2.13, which is down 35 cents from last month, AAA says.

“Gasoline prices appear ripe to break under the $2 per gallon threshold in the next day or two, something not witnessed since March, 2009”, Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst said in a statement on Monday. There may be even more reason for thanks as gas prices continue to tumble, especially with all the travel we’re about to do. The report will compare this year’s travel costs to last year’s, and will estimate the number of holiday travelers.

According to the same forecast, more than 2.9 million of those travelers will be going to their destinations by vehicle and around 240,000 will fly, with the remainder taking alternative transportation such as trains.

One thing that’s different this year than in previous years is how the current situation in the Middle East is affecting prices of crude oil. “We are definitely seeing an increase in driving, and in-store sales have been strong all year”. This increase in domestic visitors more than offset a 1.8% decline in overseas visitors and a 1.4% decline in Canadian visitors who have been impacted by a stronger USA dollar.