NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — AAA predicts nearly 110 million Americans will travel this holiday season, which runs Dec. 23 through Jan. 2, even as COVID-19 cases surge across the nation, fueled by the highly-contagious omicron variant — now the dominant strain in the U.S. accounting for about 73% of coronavirus cases.
The number marks a 34% increase from 2020.
A majority of those traveling, approximately 100 million, will do so by car.
More than 109 million people – a 34% increase from 2020 – will travel 50 miles or more as they hit the road in cars, board planes or take other transportation out of town between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2.
"It's going to be busy," warns AAA Northeast's Robert Sinclair Jr. "INRIX which tracks vehicle travel through anonymous GPS tracking says that the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Long Island Expressway on a couple of days during that holiday travel period will see the largest percentage increase of traffic volumes of any road in the entire country with a 380% increase in traffic."
According to AAA, more than 6 million Americans are expected to fly, while 3 million will book buses, trains and cruises.
More than 2 million travelers passed through the TSA at airports across the U.S. on Friday, which is nearly a 110% jump since last year.
AAA estimates more than 40 million people will travel among the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania area alone. Of those, over 90% will drive to their holiday destinations.
"It's going to be very busy, we're not quite where we were in 2019, which is the all-time record, but we're getting there," Sinclair said.
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