Turkey Day Traffic Forecast
Many stay home to save money, but roads and airports will still be crowded.
Nov. 24, 2008— -- Reluctant to spend extra money, many Americans are hunkering down this week for Thanksgiving, whether scaling back the feast, avoiding Friday sales or trimming their travel budgets.
Still, those who do decide to leave town should not expect empty airports and roadways.
"Despite the expected decline in passengers this Thanksgiving holiday travel season -- the first such decline in seven years -- Thanksgiving remains the busiest travel time of the year for airlines," James C. May, president and CEO of the Air Transport Association, said in a statement last week.
In the Skies: The Air Transport Association projects planes will be about 90 percent full Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
They'll be so packed because the airlines, like travelers themselves, have already taken a financial hit. Crippled by high fuel prices this summer, airlines pared down by taking planes out of the skies and eliminating some routes entirely to save money. That means fewer available seats and fuller planes.
"They traded a fuel crisis for an economic crisis, and if they hadn't cut seats out of the system, they'd be scrambling to do so right now," Rick Seaney, CEO of the travel Web site FareCompare.com, and an ABC News columnist, said last week.
Airlines have also offered travelers steep, last-minute sales in another attempt to bring in more business.
In turn, Seaney said, parents who may have decided six weeks ago that spending $400 to $600 to fly their child home from college was too pricey, may have revisited the issue when the price dropped to $200 to $400 dollars.
"It's really dropped dramatically for a lot of people, and they're really trying to get those people off the fence that basically thought they couldn't travel for the holidays," he said.
"Normally, procrastinators get hurt in these situations, but this year, the procrastinators are going to be rewarded."
On the Roads and Rails: Gas prices are down but slightly fewer people will travel the nation's roads and highways this Thanksgiving than last year. Still, AAA estimates about 41 million Americans on the roads traveling 50 miles or more this holiday. That's a 1.4 percent decrease from last year.
"The lower priced gasoline may persuade some who weren't inclined to travel to change their minds," Kevin Bakewell, senior vice president of AAA Auto Club South, said in a statement.
Amtrak also said it expects 128,000 travelers Wednesday alone -- a 65 percent increase from a typical Wednesday. Last year, Amtrak transported 665,000 people between the Tuesday before Thanksgiving through the following Monday.
Train travelers this week can also plan to keep eating along the way. Last year, 7.5 tons of turkey, 22,000 servings of cranberry sauce and 22,000 slices of pumpkin pie were served on Amtrak's long rides during the week of Thanksgiving.
