The largest motoring organization in the U.S. has predicted that more people will be travelling over the Christmas period this year than did so in 2008. The AAA predicts that around eighty-eight million people will make a journey of more than fifty miles over the Christmas period between December 23rd and January 3rd. The organization has pointed out that this will be more than double the amount of people who travelled home for Thanksgiving this year.
AAA says that it predicts that those travelling home by car will be 4.4 percent up on last year. It also says that the amount of people travelling by air will be up on the same period last year. However James C. May, president and CEO of the Air Transport Authority is less optimistic and said that he predicts airline capacity to be down by around 2.9 percent when compared with 2008’s figures. To cope with the effects of a devastating recession many airlines will have reduced capacity on their aircraft meaning that flights are likely to be a lot more crowded this Christmas. American Airlines’ spokesman Tim Smith said that aircraft will be fuller this year than they were last year, especially when passengers returning from Christmas run into passengers flying out for the New Year.
Whereas the airlines and car hire firms are predicted to increase their prices slightly over the festive period, the nation’s hotels are expected to lower their room rates in an effort to attract customers.
