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Wednesday marks the start of what is expected to be the busiest holiday travel season in history, with 700,000 more Californians taking to the skies and highways than last year.
The holiday travel surge marks a continuing national trend driven by low unemployment, rising wages and stable prices, said Michael Blasky, spokesman for the American Automobile Association of Northern California.
“We’ve never seen numbers like this in California,” Blasky said, with more than 14 million Californians forecast to travel over an 11-day holiday period from Saturday to Jan. 1.
Overall, 112.5 million Americans — about one in three — will be traveling over the 11-day holiday period, also a season record, the AAA said.
Congestion on Bay Area highways will grow starting Wednesday and peaking Thursday as holiday travelers mix with commuters, so AAA suggests folks leaving town try to avoid the commute hours.
More than 12.5 million Californians are expected to be on the roads over the holidays, up 4.7 percent over last year’s auto traffic. That travel comes despite the highest holiday gasoline prices in five years, averaging $3.42 a gallon last week, or 32 cents higher than a year ago.
For those taking to the roads, the California Highway Patrol warns that they should go easy on the accelerator, stay sober and stay off their phones while driving. The CHP will begin an enforcement push starting Friday with officers checking speed and looking for signs of impairment or distracted driving.
More than 1.5 million Californians are expected to fly somewhere for the holidays, up 5.5 percent from a year ago and the most in five years, peaking Saturday, Sunday and next Wednesday, Dec. 26, AAA said. The lightest flying days are expected to be Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
That’ll be a relief for air travelers like Russ Hardwick, who is flying from San Jose to Las Vegas on Christmas Eve to visit family.
“I usually try to fly around noon, so I don’t have to get up too early and I don’t arrive at night after all the good rental cars are gone, and this year is no different,” said Hardwick, 62, of Santa Clara.
Chris McGinnis, founder of San Francisco-based travel blog Travelskills.com, said that having both Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on Tuesdays will benefit travelers by spreading out the travel days. Weather also looks like it won’t be complicating matters much.
“It’s going to last all the way to the Monday after New Year’s Day so it’s nice and spread out and not a whole lot of days when we’ll see big jams,” McGinnis said.
Even so, McGinnis said, planes will be packed full and those who miss their flights may have trouble finding a later flight. Also, with the growing popularity of ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber, the roads into the airport could be jammed with drivers dropping off passengers, he said. Travelers should factor in extra time for that or consider taking public transit like BART, he said.
“It’s not going to be easy to get to your destination if you miss your plane when airlines are so full,” McGinnis said.
At Mineta San Jose International Airport, holiday travel is expected to be up 9 percent over last year, said spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes. The airport is deploying Transportation Security Administration K-9 dog teams during the holiday travel season to help keep passengers and their carry-on bags moving efficiently, as the TSA is anticipating a 25-percent bump in checked bags over the holidays, she said.
The airport expects to see more than 800,000 departing and arriving passengers over the peak holiday travel period from Wednesday through Jan. 6 — 70,000 more travelers than last year, Barnes said. Peak travel times at SJC are between 5 and 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. to noon and 4 to 5 p.m., she said.
The airport has had a banner year, with overall traffic up 16 percent for 2018 compared with a national increase of 5 percent. The projected 14.3 million passengers in 2018 top SJC’s previous record of 14.2 million in 2001 before the 9/11 terrorist attacks and bumped San Jose over Oakland to the Bay Area’s second-busiest airport.
For the holidays, the airport recommends arriving an hour and a half early for domestic flights and two hours early for international travel. Parking is expected to be full, and the airport recommends checking it online or by calling 408-441-5570.
Oakland International Airport expects several “peak” days of more than 50,000 travelers during this holiday season because both Christmas and New Year’s Day are on Tuesdays. The airport offers similar suggestions to arrive early and monitor flight status.
San Francisco International Airport expects travel in and out of the airport this season to be “on par with our volumes from holiday 2017,” spokesman Doug Yakel said. Travelers can review travel tips online, he said.
Uber advises that holiday travel periods are always busy and that passengers should consider booking a ride in advance and make sure to check that they get into the right driver’s car. Lyft offers a Lyft XL service to ensure a vehicle with extra room for passengers and their luggage.
Getting around is getting more expensive. Car rental prices averaging $76 a day are up 3 percent from last year to a 10-year high, according to the AAA report.
The AAA projections are based on research by London-based IHS Markit and global mobility analytics company INRIX.
