DALLAS | The slowly improving economy could boost travel over the Thanksgiving holiday to levels not seen in nine years.
AAA forecasts that 48.7 million Americans will travel, the busiest Thanksgiving period on U.S. roads and in skies since 2007, the year before the global financial crisis plunged the U.S. economy into a deep recession.
The auto club AAA said Tuesday that it expects 1 million more Americans to venture at least 50 miles from home, a 1.9 percent increase over last year.
The forecast was assembled at research firm IHS, which said it considered jobs, household net worth, the stock market, prices for gasoline and airline tickets, and other factors.
The researchers did their number crunching in mid-October, about three weeks before the surprising outcome in the presidential election.
The AAA forecast predicts that from Wednesday, Nov. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 27, about 43.5 million Americans will take long car trips, 1.9 percent more than last year. AAA expects 3.7 million will travel by air, a 1.6 percent increase. Bus and train trips will grow less than 1 percent, the auto group said.
In Colorado, AAA expects a similar jump in holiday travel.
The group’s Colorado branch is expecting 791,000 Coloradans — about 14 percent of the population — to travel more than 50 miles from home during the Thanksgiving holiday. That amounts to a 1.5-percent spike compared to 2015 and would be the most Colorado travelers since 2007.
The bulk of those travelers will go by car, AAA said, with more than 680,000 Coloradans opting for an automobile.
About 7 percent of travelers in Colorado will fly, AAA said.
The spike in travel comes even as Colorado gas prices average $2.15 a gallon, AAA said, about 10 cents more than Thanksgiving 2015.
According to AAA’s Leisure Travel Index, airfares are projected to increase 21 percent this Thanksgiving and travelers staying in a hotel can expect to pay about $155 per night.
Airlines for America predicts that air travel will rise 2.5 percent over last year’s holiday, although the group considers Thanksgiving travel spanning a 12-day period that begins Nov. 18.
For Denver International Airport, any spike in air travel would follow a recent trend that has seen DIA set records for the number of travelers passing through.
The airport said last week that September 2016 was the busiest September in the airport’s history. In all, 5,112,271 passengers passed through the airport that month, DIA officials said in a statement. That put year-to-date passenger traffic 8.2 percent higher than during this same time in 2015, with 43,519,317 passengers, the statement said.
“This was the first September in Denver history with more than 5 million passengers,” airport CEO Kim Day said in the statement. “Our airline partners continue to experience strong growth, a reflection of Denver’s robust economy, which is generating a high propensity to travel and strong inbound demand for visitors traveling to Colorado.”
Data for October travel has not yet been released.
AIR TRAVEL TIPS
Planes are likely to be packed over the holiday, and bad weather or airline computer malfunctions can slow things to a crawl. If the unexpected happens, be ready to react quickly.
—Arrive early. At some airports, including Dallas-Fort Worth International and Dallas Love Field, garages and other facilities are under construction, making matters worse.
—Pack smart. Don’t put anything you really need — medicine, passport, other important papers — in your rollaboard bag; or remember to remove it if the airline orders you to gate-check your bag, which happens when flights are full and bins are overstuffed.
—Customer assistance. If your flight is canceled, get in line to talk to an airline customer rep but call the airline too. You might have better luck reaching an overseas number — look up the numbers before your trip.
Aurora Sentinel reporter Brandon Johansson contributed to this report.