Record Number of Travelers Expected This Holiday Season
AAA Carolina projects a record number of South Carolinians will travel 50 or miles during Christmas and New Years.
Columbia , S.C. (WOLO) — AAA Carolina’s estimates a record number of South Carolinians will travel this holiday season. December 23rd is one of the busiest travel days of the year.
“If you take a red eye surprisingly it’s very busy at 2 o’clock in the morning,” said Trey Calhoun.
On Wednesday morning travelers poured in and out of Columbia Metropolitan Airport headed to their holiday destination. AAA Carolina projects more than 1.3 million South Carolinians will travel 50 miles or more during the Christmas and New Year holidays, up a small percent from last year.
“I actually drove from Hilton Head up to Columbia to take a flight out of Columbia and the roads were a little busy but not at bad as I expected,” said Matt Langley, headed to Ohio to visit family.
Several flights in and out of Columbia’s airport were delayed due to the dense cloud cover and rain hitting many parts of the country. The delays held up plans for some travelers.
“It was pretty bad, there was some weather I think between here and Dallas that caused us to re-route which delayed us about an hour,” said Jefferson Nox.
AAA attributes the increase in travel this holiday season to falling gas prices. In South Carolina the average gas price is roughly $1.74, that’s the lowest price this time of year in 7 years.
“It definitely helps out, the holidays are expensive,” explained traveler Kyle Brown. “Any little bit that can help out whether it’s gas prices, definitely is a good thing.”
Whether South Carolinians plan to travel by the skyways or highways, AAA officials remind travelers to be smart and safe in throughout their travels.
