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4.6 million New Englanders Expected to Travel Over Holidays, Snow Expected

Photo: 560 WGAN Newsradio


A storm Tuesday night is expected to bring 3-6 inches of snow to the Midcoast and metro Portland.

Tom Baran with AAA Northern New England says it’ll definitely impact holiday travel, and travelers need to plan ahead.

“That’s going to be an interesting thing, because just a couple of inches creates some real slipperiness,” said Baran. “And so, we want to plan ahead. We want to make sure we’re going to allow extra time.”

Baran says another possible storm on Friday could further complicate travel and is advising air travelers to check their flight status to make sure they can get to their destination.

Triple-A is also urging people attending holiday festivities to use a ride share or designated driver if they’ll be drinking.

Meanwhile, AAA is projecting an increase in New Englanders traveling this holiday period with 4.6 million expected make a trip on the road or through the air, a 2 percent increase over last year’s record for the region.

Baran says another segment of travel is seeing a major increase in numbers.

“Cruise ships is really kind of taken a whole life of its own again,” Baran said. “And since the covid virus time period, it is really ramping up. So, we’re seeing a lot of people taking cruises over this holiday season as well.”

Triple-A numbers show traveling by bus, train, or cruise has seen a 25 percent increase in the last few years, mainly due to the record-setting demand for cruises post-pandemic.

Overall AAA holiday travel projections for New England show 3.9 million will travel by automobile, an increase of 1.8 percent. Holiday air travel is expected to increase 2.5 percent to 488,000 leisure travelers. And travel by trains, buses, rails and cruise ships will increase by 5.5 percent to 142,000 passengers.

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