Record breaking holiday season for travel

AAA projects almost 3.2 million people from MI plan to travel for the year-end holiday season. Airfares for the top 40 domestic flight routes are six percent lower this holiday season, falling to an average of $174 roundtrip, according to AAA’s Leisure Travel Index.

Still, 156,184 in the state are expected to fly, up 0.7 percent.

In Illinois, growth will be even stronger, with an estimated 5.2 million people traveling for the holiday weekend, which is a 2% increase, with similar increases in the percentage of people driving and flying.

The auto club notes this is the highest projected travel volume in MI in at least 14 years, as their data only goes back to 2001.

AAA says a combination of an average gas price of $2.01 and slightly higher wages are part of the uptick in travelers. “This helps boost Americans’ disposable income, generating more money to spend on lodging, dining out and buying gifts”.

More than 90 percent of travelers will be hitting the roads with the national gas average just shy of $2.

AAA expects to rescue almost 900,000 motorists during the 12-day year-end holiday travel period, with the primary reasons being dead batteries, lockouts and flat tires. AAA management points out that some travelers continue to be financially cautious this year.

It looks like this will be a record-setting holiday season.

The increase in travelers is attributed to low gas prices.

With the AAA Mobile app, travelers can also find more than 58,000 AAA Approved and Diamond Rated hotels and restaurants via TripTik Travel Planner.

AAA is predicting year-end holiday travel will break a record.

That’s an increase of 1.9 percent Floridians and 1.4 percent Americans compared to the 2014 holiday.

More people than ever will be traveling from North Carolina.