Thanksgiving 2024 travel in Oregon on record pace

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Whether you're headed home or to Aunt Madge's for some of her scrumptious ribbon Jello, you're likely to run into many other travelers this week. Millions of them, in fact.

AAA reports about 80 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles from home for the Thanksgiving holiday, about 2 million more than in 2019.

Planes will be packed as 5.8 million people will fly this Thanksgiving holiday, a new record for this time of the year and exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The busiest times are the day before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but many are in the skies now.

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Over this holiday about 114,000 Oregonians are expected to fly -- including college students returning home.

"I booked a flight this morning, actually. We just got home," Sarah Teubner said at PDX. "I was supposed to be (home for) Christmas, but just had to come home to the family."

This holiday season, AAA said travelers are paying about 12% less for domestic trips than a year ago.

Bret Dawson noticed the lower fares.

"It wasn't expensive, actually," Dawson said. "They upgraded (my wife) to first class. She got lucky there."

And Elliott Pierce said things in the airports were moving well.

"My security line was about 20 minutes at the Chicago airport, and it seems pretty calm here," Pierce said. "So, so far, it's been great."

But there are always delays, and they're not always from the airline.

Tera Hurst, who described herself as a mother who "couldn't be more excited," said her son "slept through his first flight this morning." But they "got him on the second flight," she said. "and it didn't really even cost me anything."

Roads and rails

Flights are certainly not the only way people are getting from place to place for the Thanksgiving break.

Nearly 72 million Americans will hit the road by car, AAA said -- and again, that's a new record. It doesn't hurt that gas prices are down noticeably from one year ago.

Overall, more than 1 million Oregonians are going somewhere for Thanksgiving -- by car, by train or in the air.

If you're one of those Oregonians driving someplace, be aware the worst times are Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday afternoons beginning at 1 p.m. The return trip will be bad Friday morning, Saturday late afternoon, Sunday afternoon and throughout the day on Monday.

And specifically in the Portland-to-Eugene corridor, AAA said a trip on Tuesday afternoon will take about 2 hours 16 minutes along I-5.

Traveling by bus or train will also be busy, as AAA said they expect about a 9% increase from a year ago, which is an 18% jump since 2018.

Regardless of how you take your trip, seeing loved ones is the reason we do it.

Ammon Teubner, one of Sarah's relatives, summed it up: "We're just super happy she's back."