With more families traveling, a higher proportion of people drive and a lower proportion fly on long-distance holiday trips. The share of trips made by personal use vehicles is 83 percent for both Christmas and Thanksgiving, compared with 81 percent for the entire year, while the share of air travel is 15.2 percent for Thanksgiving and 15.5 percent at Christmas, compared with 16.1 percent for the year. New Year's is the only exception, with a lower than average share driving (78.9 percent) and a higher than average share flying (18.5 percent).
Despite the fact that a greater share of people drive to and from their Thanksgiving and Christmas destinations, air travel doubles during the holidays. Airports are the most congested on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (2.0 million people traveling), the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, December 27th, and New Year's Eve (each with about 1.7 million people traveling).
