AAA predicts record breaking year for holiday travel

Millions of Americans are kicking off their Christmas vacation. Along with those presents be sure to pack some patience because the highways and skyways are busy.

AAA is predicting another record breaking year of holiday travel with 107 million people going 50 miles or more. The worst time to travel is between late afternoon and early evening.

“My plans are to go to Lake Tahoe,” said traveler, Salud Morelos. While another traveler, Scott Miller said he’s going to “Dayton, Ohio.”

Those are just some of the estimated five million people from Northern California that are traveling this Christmas.

AAA credits strong consumer confidence for driving the numbers for a ninth year in a row.

“More people are going to be on the roads and in the airports this year than quite some time, pretty much the last decade,” said AAA’s Mike Blasky.

90 percent of travelers are hitting the highways.

“Ticket prices around the holidays are pretty expensive for flying and renting a car, probably about the same maybe a little cheaper than I have a car to drive around when I’m on Christmas,” said traveler, Garret Hothi.

But air travel is gaining altitude, AAA said this is the fourth consecutive year of travel volume increases.

Following national trends, Monterey Regional Airport expects to see a lot of traffic on Thursday and Friday.

“You look at the experience of going through this airport versus going through some of the larger airports and you get into the system a lot easier, a lot more conveniently. There’s a lot less hassle than you do at some of the larger airports so you don’t wait as long, there aren’t as many people to jostle around with so we think that’s a selling point. But we also think that the airfares that are offered out of this market now are much more competitive than they’ve ever been,” said Executive Director of Monterey Regional Airport, Michael La Pier.

“First LA, then Chicago, I stay in Chicago for a little bit, then off to Dayton,” said Miller.

Scott Miller said cheaper airfares are why he’s flying out of Monterey so he can spend time with friends and family in Ohio.

But for many travelers driving is how most of us will travel this holiday season.

“We predict the afternoon and early evening hours today are going to be congested. That’s where you’re going to see the most congestion those commuters mix with holiday travelers. Definitely this afternoon into early hours Thursday the roads are probably going to be very busy,” said Blasky.

Salinas Police said they will hold a DUI checkpoint Thursday night.

“When you’re rushed obviously that’s going to tempt you to speed and we want everyone to try to slow down. There’s going to be a lot of traffic out, there’s going to be a lot of pedestrians out, so driving a little bit slower gives you a little more time to react if something goes wrong and could save you from being in a collision,” said Salinas PD Sgt. Gerry Ross.

The department is not disclosing where or what times the checkpoints will take place.