Day After Christmas Will Be The Busiest Travel Day Of The Year For Drivers
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The day after Christmas will be a very busy day for travelers, especially if you're driving, with a record number of people taking a trip of 50 miles or more.
More than 115 million Americans will be driving, flying, or taking the train on Thursday, the highest total since AAA started tracking holiday travel in 2000.
It's a nearly 4% increase from last year.
While Sunday was expected to be the busiest travel day of the year at the airports, with 104 million people driving on the day after Christmas, it's expected to be the worst travel day of the year on the roads.
In Chicago, traffic is expected to be at its worst between 4:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.
Meantime, O'Hare and Midway airports are among the busiest in the country for travel between Christmas and New Year's Day.
If you're flying from either airport on Thursday, officials have recommended arriving two hours early for domestic flights and three hours early for international flights.
With warm weather and clear skies, at least travelers won't have to worry about any major weather delays. As of 9:20 a.m., only 12 flights had been cancelled at O'Hare, and none at Midway. Delays at both airports were averaging less than 15 minutes.
Over the past 24 hours, less than 100 of nearly 2,500 flights at O'Hare were delayed, and only 12 were cancelled. At Midway, only 27 of more than 500 flights have been delayed in that time, and none have been cancelled.
