Whether by plane, train or automobile, Americans are traveling this Thanksgiving holiday in record numbers.
O’Hare International Airport is predicting its busiest Thanksgiving week ever, despite the FAA recently lifting flight restrictions across the country during the country’s longest government shutdown.
More than 1.63 million travelers may pass through O’Hare during the seven-day Thanksgiving period, until Dec. 1, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. That’s a 9.5% jump from 2024 and likely the busiest Thanksgiving travel week in the airport’s 70-year history
And air travel is up across the country. The Federal Aviation Administration is expecting this to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in 15 years with more than 360,000 flights. Tuesday is expected to be the peak travel day, with some 52,000 flights alone.
The peak day at O’Hare is expected to be Sunday, Nov. 30, with nearly 290,000 passengers. At Midway, nearly 350,000 travelers are expected over the same seven day period, according to the Aviation Department.
Travel at the city’s airports is up this year, following a dip in attendance following the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, O’Hare recorded its busiest summer in its 70-year history. More than 24 million passengers traveled through the airport during the months of June, July and August.
Most people traveling by car
Meanwhile, the autogroup AAA Travel predicts 81.8 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home beginning Tuesday to next Monday, nearly 2 million more compared to last year at this time, which will be a new record.
Thanksgiving is typically the busiest travel season because of the number of people willing to travel far to spend time with loved ones, according to Stacey Barber, Vice President of AAA Travel.
“Thanksgiving travel numbers are always impressive because this holiday has become synonymous with heading out of town to spend time with loved ones,” Barber said in a statement.
A vast majority of the 73 million people traveling this year will be by car, AAA predicts. That’s an increase of about 1.3 million compared to last year at this time. That number could increase if some air travelers decide to drive instead of fly, according to AAA.
The Illinois Tollway says it is expecting the heaviest traffic on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, when more than 1.8 million vehicles are expected to travel on the Tollway system. That’s more than the average 1.6 million who typically use the system each day.
To make driving easier, the Illinois Tollway is suspending most temporary construction and maintenance closures, according to the agency.
Over the holiday week, the Tollway is expecting 9.2 million autos to use the system — a 1% increase from last year, according to Rohan Gayle, chief of Maintenance and Traffic with Illinois Tollway.
“We’re pretty consistent with travel numbers. We’re not seeing a drastic shift either way up or down,” Gayle said.
Amtrak expecting record numbers
Amtrak is also gearing up for a record number of travelers. Last year, the train service carried more than 1.1 million customers from Nov. 22 to Dec. 1.
“Last year at Thanksgiving, we were up about 4% over the year before. Since we’re coming off another record breaking year, we have every reason to believe we’re going to break a record this Thanksgiving, too,” said Marc Magliari, spokesman for Amtrak in Chicago.
The train service expects Sunday to be the busiest day during this year’s holiday period, with people trying to head home. About 144,000 passengers rode Amtrak that day last year.
“Last year at Thanksgiving, we had more than 100,000 customers passing through our Chicago Union Station. We’re going to get past that by some margin,” Magliari said.