AAA: 46.9 Million Americans to Travel for Thanksgiving

And the low prices should continue through the holidays into December and January. AAA calculates almost 42 million Americans will be taking a holiday road trip.

“I would say the low prices are probably driving people to go further distances”, DeHaan said.

With gas prices down, we can expect an increase in the number of travelers hitting the road for turkey and Grandma’s special casserole this Thanksgiving.

On Monday, the price of regular gas in Broward County averaged $2.21 per gallon, down 5 cents from a week earlier and off 3 cents from a month ago.

All that traveling puts 2015 on track to be the biggest year for growth in vehicle miles of travel in at least the past decade, especially considering retail gas prices kept falling in October and November, analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt said in a note Monday. It’s a. 6 percent increase over past year and the largest number of travelers since 2007, the agency reports.

As in years past, most Thanksgiving travel will be on the highways.

Ahead of Thanksgiving, Wright said she doesn’t anticipate any major change in prices through the week.

The national average is at $2.08 a gallon, whille Springfield is hovering around $1.80. Last year, the average prices on Thanksgiving Day were $2.79 in Florida, $2.71 in Georgia, and $2.59 in Tennessee.

Nationwide, AAA Travel forecasts 46.9 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home during the Thanksgiving holiday, a 0.6 percent increase over the 46.6 million people who traveled a year ago.

Historically, gasoline demand tends to decline during November, and with the autumn refinery maintenance season nearing completion, pump prices are expected to move lower to close out the year, barring any unanticipated outages or supply disruptions, Jenkins said.

Even so, there’s a “50-50 chance” that gas prices will rise in the Lansing area over the next few days because competition has driven prices down so quickly that retailers can’t keep it up, DeHaan said.

For those flying this week, AAA said airfares are projected to decrease 10 percent, at an average of $169 roundtrip across the top 40 domestic flight routes.

The majority of those travelers, nearly 90 percent, will travel by auto, AAA predicted.