PITTSBURGH — AAA projects 54.3 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more away from home this Thanksgiving, a 4.8 percent increase over last year.  

The 2018 holiday weekend will see the highest Thanksgiving travel volume in more than a dozen years (since 2005), with 2.5 million more people taking to the nation’s roads, skies, rails and waterways compared with last year.

For the 48.5 million Americans planning a Thanksgiving road trip, INRIX, a global mobility analytics company, predicts travel times in the most congested cities in the U.S. could see much heavier than normal congestion.

“The thriving economy is giving travelers a lot to be thankful for this year,” says Jim Lehman, president of AAA East Central. “Two-and-a-half million more Americans will have the chance this year to create new lasting memories with their families and friends, which is very exciting to see.”

The Thanksgiving holiday period is defined as today to Sunday.

Thanksgiving forecast highlights include:

Thanksgiving holiday travelers will total 6.5 million, an increase of 5% from the 6.19 million in 2017.  

5.8 million will travel by automobile, up 5.1% from last year’s number of 5.2 million.

574,000 people will fly to their destinations, up 5.6% from the previous year’s amount of 543,000.