The Texas Holiday Travel Season is Expected to Be Busier Than Last Year

This is the time of year when people in Texas are traveling everywhere.  One family lives in Amarillo, while the other lives in Houston.  Uncle Frank lives in El Paso and has to travel to Tyler to get to family.

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That or they have to travel cross country.  It's crazy just how many travel during the holiday season.  The kids will be getting out of school this week if they haven't already and that means it's time to hit the road to get to Grandma's house or the Christmas vacation destination.

It is expected that 9 million Texans will be traveling between now and the end of the New Year's holiday, and is expected to be the 2nd busiest on record.   This year 115.2 million travelers are expected to hit the road or fly this holiday season.  That is 4.1 million less than 2019, but up 2% from last year.

It will be busy on the highways and especially the airports this holiday in Texas.  Daniel Armbruster with AAA Texas answered several questions for us about holiday travel:

How busy will roads and skies be in Texas?

Nine million Texans are expected to travel between December 23 and January first for the year-end holidays. That’s a two percent increase over last year, it’s the largest number post-pandemic for the yearend travel, and certainly it means there’s going to be very busy roads and very busy skies. You’re going to want to get to the airport at least two hours early and you’re really going to want to avoid traffic in major metro areas on the evening of December 23rd. That’s predicted to be one of the busiest evenings
throughout the holiday period.

How many roadside emergencies will AAA respond to in Texas?

More than 46,000 motorists are going to call AAA Texas in the year-end holiday period for help on the side of the road because of an emergency. The top reasons for roadside emergencies this holiday season will be dead batteries, flat tires, and engine problems. You really want to make sure your vehicle is road trip ready before you head out.

What are the top destinations for the Year-End Holiday period?

Top destinations this year include places like Orlando, Florida and Anaheim, California where Disney is. And certainly there’s also a lot of international travel occurring this year. The top place this year is London, England. And don’t forget here in Texas we’ve got some top destinations too. Houston is the 10th most popular place that people will be traveling this holiday season.

If you are traveling this holiday season, be careful, be alert and expect delays whether you are flying or driving.