Claim that Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day needs context

Many people around the country are planning to fly or drive to visit loved ones for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Some say the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the entire year, but a number of news articles from the past decade have claimed this is a myth.

THE QUESTION

Is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving the busiest travel day of the year?

THE SOURCES

• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
• AAA

THE ANSWER

It’s true that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is when roads in major U.S. metro areas are most congested, and most holiday travel is by car. But for air travel, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving isn’t nearly as busy as the Sunday that follows the holiday.

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WHAT WE FOUND

The busiest travel day of the Thanksgiving holiday differs by mode of transportation.

According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the busiest day of the year for airports nationwide in 2019 was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The agency screened more than 2.8 million passengers that day.

That day remained the all-time busiest day for the agency until June 30, 2023, when the agency again screened more than 2.8 million passengers. TSA expects a new record to be set Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. TSA expects to screen more than 2.9 million passengers on that day. 

The agency expects to screen 2.6 million on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and 2.7 million on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the day before Thanksgiving. Neither of those two days would crack the top 10 busiest days for air travel in TSA history, all of which have been in either 2019 or 2023.

But data from AAA shows that most holiday travel is done by automobile rather than by plane, train or bus, and AAA says the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the holiday period on roadways.

There is no data source that confirms the single day with the most cars on the road annually, but AAA says the average travel times on the road the Wednesday before Thanksgiving could be as high as 80% over normal in some metro areas.

AAA’s 2019 holiday travel reports estimated potential travel delays consistently between every holiday, which AAA did not do in 2023. Peak road delays the day before that year’s Thanksgiving were about three times longer than usual in 10 metro areas, according to AAA. That was a longer average delay than those same areas saw at the peak of December holiday travel that year, the peak of Independence Day travel and the peak of Memorial Day travel. 

This story is also available in Spanish / Lee este artículo también en español: Asegurar que el miércoles antes de Acción de Gracias es el día más concurrido para viajar necesita contexto