x
Breaking News
More () »

AAA: More Drivers On The Road This Holiday Season

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)- Statistics from the AAA project nearly 98.6 million people will be traveling more than 50 miles from home around the holidays. The study sh...

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)- Statistics from the AAA project nearly 98.6 million people will be traveling more than 50 miles from home around the holidays. The study shows the 2014 holiday travel season will have the highest volume of travelers since 2001.

Fayetteville resident Eric Kern said he is expecting the roads to be congested.

"For the next few days it will probably be pretty busy with students leaving town, but usually Fayetteville is pretty empty during Christmas, but with gas prices who knows we could probably have a lot more people deciding to go out of town," Kern said.

Statistics show the average national price for a gallon of gas is $2.53--- that's down $0.70 from this time last year. Kern said even though he doesn't have a road trip planned, he is liking the low prices.

"I live around here, I go see my parents and they live probably about 20 minutes outside of town, so it does help,  I don't have to do any huge trips or anything like that but it's still wonderful," Kern said.

Local James Rector is moving to Little Rock this week. He said he plans on visiting family in Oklahoma for Christmas, and will likely be driving several hundreds miles in the next week. He said he's happy for a break at the pumps too.

"Absolutely, yeah I would say so, especially now that I'm having to drive from Little Rock all the way over to Oklahoma, that will definitely help the gas prices," Rector said.

AA statistics show that around 5.7 million travelers will be flying, up only 1% from last year. XNA Director Kelly Johnson said the terminal isn't any busier than normal. Johnson said the lightest travel day of the holiday season will be on Christmas Day.

Before You Leave, Check This Out