Get Ready, Holiday Travel Delays Could Be Record-Levels Of Bad

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We survived Thanksgiving’s traffic jams only to be back, one month later, facing record-levels of holiday travel delays. Santa help us all.

According to AAA, 107.3 million Americans will travel by car or plane between December 23 and January 1. It’s the highest number of travelers on record for the winter holidays. The travel company predicts that travelers could experience delays making their trips three times longer than they would be at a different time of year.

We’re looking at 97.4 million road trippers – 3 percent more than last year. So if you had trouble getting out of the city in 2016, prepare accordingly for 2017.

The worst days for driving are Wednesday, December 20 and Thursday, December 21, and rush hour is when traffic will unsurprisingly be nasty. If you have any flexibility in your schedule, we’d suggest fleeing the city before midday and being past the ‘burbs by the end of the workday.

Traffic will be worst on Wednesday in:

• San Francisco at 3:00 to 5:30 p.m.
• New York City at 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
• Los Angeles at 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
• Seattle at 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
• Houston at 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Drivers will be the most unhappy on Thursday in:

• Boston at 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
• Detroit at 3:00 to 5:30 p.m.
• Washington, D.C. at 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
• Chicago at 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
• Atlanta at 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

A post shared by Chumdinger 🏖🌎✈️ (@chumdinger) on Dec 5, 2017 at 8:56am PST

Traveling via plane? You and 6.4 million other holiday travelers are upping the volume by 4.1 percent from last year. Don’t skimp on the time you allot to pass through airport security. Around the holidays, it’s best to plan for a full two hours at the airport before your flight.

According to AirHelp, the 10 busiest airports during the 2016 holiday season reached peak traffic between December 22 and January 2.

December 22

• Dallas (DFW)
• Los Angeles (LAX)

December 23

• San Francisco (SFO)
• Chicago (ORD)
• Denver (DEN)
• Charlotte (CLT)
• Houston (IAH)

December 26

• Atlanta (ATL)

January 2

• New York City (JFK)
• Newark (EWR)

Wondering just how busy the airports are? From worst to slightly less terrible, the busiest holiday airports last year were ATL, ORD, LAX, DFW, DEN, CLT, IAH, JFK, SFO and EWR.

We don’t have a magic solution for the traffic – we wish we could send you around the world in a reindeer-powered sleigh with zero interference – so strap in, download your favorite podcasts and blast some holiday tunes to keep the cheerful spirit strong through the delays.