The Best And Worst Days To Travel This Holiday Season
As Christmas and New Years get closer and closer, millions of Americans are gearing up and already preparing for their holiday commutes this year. Whether or not you already have a plane, train, or bus ticket purchased there’s always room to improve upon your travelling plans. Every year it seems as if more and more Americans decide to gear up and make the holiday commute to spend their days with family and friends. So when is the best time to actually hit the road and make your way to grandma’s house?
Airlines for America (A4A) is an industry trade group for all major airlines and they recently released their reports for what to expect during holiday travel this year. The reports list all the best days during the holidays to make your commute, and when the worst time to travel is. Surprisingly, the data shows that Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Eve will be the lightest travel days this year. This means there’s likely to be much less foot and regular traffic amongst the roads and air terminals on these days. This data is compiled by using the results from the A4A reports of the past few holiday seasons. Most travelers are already at their destination by actual Christmas Day, however, if you can manage to hold off and wait, and are in a situation where you’re not going very far, definitely hold off if you’re dreading your commute this year.
The same logic goes towards New Years, by the actual eve of the day, most individuals are either already at their destination from Christmas, or are heading somewhere local for the day, so for the most part the roads and skies remain clear. However, “clear” during the holiday season, really just means that public transportation will look like it does on an average day more so than a holiday. A4A is predicting that a total of 47.5 million Americans will fly round trip this year during the 18 day holiday travel period. This period of time goes from Thursday, December 19th to Sunday January 5th, and those dates are again based on past data on holiday commuting.
This is why planning ahead is so important. The reports also tell us that the worst days for travel this holiday season will be Friday, December 20th; Saturday, December 21; Friday, December 27; and Thursday, December 26. On these days as many as 2.6 million flyers are expected to take a plane ride to their holiday destinations. Compared to last year the reports tell us that’s a 3% increase in passengers! To convert that percentage, that means an additional 88,000 individuals will be flying on an additional 884 flights that airlines are cramming into the schedule every day.
“Throughout this year we’ve seen steady gains in air travel demand, and this winter will be no exception. Buoyed by a healthy economy and plentiful, affordable air service, travelers once again are expected to take to the skies in record numbers,” said Vice President and Chief Economist John Heimlich in a statement.
In addition to the millions of passengers that will be passing through these airports this holiday season, U.S. airlines will also be transporting around 58,000 tons of cargo per day. That’s a lot of presents in Santa’s sack.
Whenever you plan on making your commute, it’s likely that you will hit traffic (either in a car or on foot) of some sort, so make sure to plan. It’s recommended that if you’re taking a flight this holiday season to ensure that you have a ride to the airport that will get you there at least three hours before your departure time. This will ensure that you have enough time to get through security, no matter how long the line is, and might even have time to grab a snack for the plane. Additionally, if you’re flying, consider getting TSA precheck to skip heavy standard security lines.
If you’re driving, and it’s on one of the days listed above as the worst day to travel, try to leave as early as possible. You can catch up on sleep once you get to your destination but the longer you wait to leave in the morning, the longer it’s likely to take to actually get there. Regardless, plan it out, pack the essentials, and take your time, Christmas will still be waiting for you once you get there so you might as well get there safely.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.