Record Travel In Tennessee Expected For Thanksgiving Holiday

There will be a lot of traffic heading over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house starting next week. The AAA says that 81.8 million Americans are expected to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. That’s an increase of 1.6 million more than last year. Thanksgiving is the busiest holiday travel season of the year.

Here in Tennessee, the AAA projects that 1.9 million Tennesseans will travel at least 50 miles from home during the Thanksgiving holiday period. The Thanksgiving holiday travel period begins on Tuesday, November 25 and goes till Monday, December 1. If the AAA’s projection for Tennessee travel is correct that would set a new record for Thanksgiving travel in the Volunteer State.

Of the people traveling this year, the majority will do so via the road. The AAA says they expect 73 million Americans to travel by car this Thanksgiving, that accounts for 90% of all holiday travel.

For the 6 million Americans expected to fly domestically, there is good news in the fact that the FAA has now lifted the flight restrictions that had been put in place for the nations’ 40 largest airports due to the government shutdown. While airports like McGhee Tyson did not see a restriction in flights, the airport felt the ripple effects from airports like Atlanta, Charlotte and Washington DC. With air traffic controllers back to work and the airports fully staffed, a busy holiday travel season will be made a little easier.