Hundreds of thousands of Coloradans are expected to take planes, trains and automobiles over the next 10 days to vacation or visit loved ones for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Denver International Airport will likely see more than 845,000 passengers at security checkpoints between Friday and Dec. 1, an almost 10% increase from 2024, airport officials said in a news release.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 30, will likely be the single busiest day at the Denver airport, with more than 96,000 people expected to pass through security. Other busy days include Tuesday and Nov. 29, DIA officials said. Over all three days, the airport expects to screen more than 271,000 passengers.
Widespread concerns about flight delays and cancellations, amplified by government-ordered flight cuts during the federal shutdown, have officials with Amtrak and Greyhound expecting high ticket sales, the companies said this week.
Greyhound bookings are trending up this year, though passengers often don’t buy bus tickets until a few days before their trip, so exact numbers are still unknown, according to a statement from spokesperson Karina Frayter with Greyhound parent company Flix North America.
“With all the uncertainty surrounding air travel in recent weeks, we’re seeing more travelers turn to (an) intercity bus as a more reliable and less stressful choice,” Frayter said. “This is especially true for trips in the 200-400-mile range, where total travel time is comparable to — or even less than — flying.”
The most popular Greyhound bus routes in Colorado include round trips from Denver along the Interstate 25 and Interstate 70 corridors to Fort Collins, Vail and Colorado Springs, as well as trips to big cities in nearby states like Salt Lake City and Omaha, Nebraska.
“We’ve been adding additional capacity on high-demand routes to ensure people have affordable and reliable options to get home for the holidays,” Frayter said.
A record-breaking number of travelers are expected to hit the rails for Thanksgiving travel, Amtrak officials said in a news release.
Rail officials are seeing an increase in early bookings compared to last year, when 1.2 million people traveled by train for the holiday.
But road trips remain the most popular way to travel for Thanksgiving, with at least 73 million people — or 90% of all Thanksgiving travelers — expected on roadways across the U.S. this year, according to AAA.
Colorado usually takes up a bigger chunk of national travel bookings compared to other states, with Coloradans more likely to travel overall compounding the state’s status as a popular winter destination, spokesperson Skyler McKinley said.
Despite lackluster snowfall so far this year, most people book trips to Colorado ski resorts far in advance, McKinley said.
Folks who wanted to avoid congested roads should start driving before 11 a.m. most days of the holiday week and after 8 p.m. on Dec. 1, according to AAA data.
Holiday traffic on the Front Range is expected to peak Tuesday night on northbound I-25 between Pueblo and Denver.
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