West Kentucky Star

73 million people anticipated on US roads for Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving travel weekend begins Wednesday, and another record amount of travelers are expected to be on the roads and in the air through Sunday.

AAA projects at least 73 million people will travel by car, an additional 1.3 million compared to last Thanksgiving.

At the pump, drivers are paying about the same as last year, when the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.06 on Thanksgiving Day.

According to AAA, 6.1 million U.S. travelers are expected to take domestic flights over the Thanksgiving holiday period, a 2% increase compared to 2024. The number of Thanksgiving air travelers over the past several years has been between 5 and 6 million.

The busiest travel day for Thanksgiving is the Sunday after the holiday, which is consistently the single busiest air travel day of the year. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is also one of the busiest, particularly for road travel, as people head to their destinations.

(AP Photo Matt Rourke)

8 hours ago