Record 38.7 million Americans expected to travel for Thanksgiving
WASHINGTON - Gas prices near record highs will not deter drivers from hitting the road this Thanksgiving, AAA said today. The travel agency expects a record 38.7 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home over the five days beginning Nov. 21. That is a 1.6 percent increase over last year. Roughly 80 percent of those trips will be by car, and motorists will pay about $1 a gallon more for gas than last year.
Guy Caruso, chief of the Energy Department’s statistical division, the Energy Information Administration, predicted Wednesday that gasoline prices, now averaging $3.11 a gallon nationwide, will rise another 10 cents by December. In past years this has been a time when gas prices typically decline.
Gas prices traditionally fall in the winter months as demand ebbs from summer highs, but oil prices flirting with $100 a barrel and low fuel stockpiles have reversed that trend this year. Still, demand for gasoline over the four weeks ending Nov. 2 was 0.8 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging more than 9.3 million barrels a day.
“This is the first time that we have seen gas prices tipping over $3 a gallon in November,” Robert L. Darbelnet, president and chief executive of AAA, said. . “But Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family gatherings, and higher gas will not discourage Americans from reconnecting with their loved ones.”
Some 31.2 million motorists will hit the road for Thanksgiving, a 1.3 percent increase from last year. Another 4.7 million will travel by air, and the remainder will go by train, bus or other transportation.