Holiday travel to fall in N.C.

The number of North Carolina
who will travel this Christmas is expected to fall slightly, AAA Carolinas says.
About 1.95 million people will travel either by auto or by plane this holiday,
AAA says, down from 1.97 million people in 2007. That would mark the first
decline in Christmas holiday travel since 2002. “The economy is the grinch in
this year’s Christmas holiday travel period,” David E. Parsons, president and
CEO of AAA Carolinas, said in a written statement. “Planes will be packed with
the airlines’ capacity cutbacks. Winter weather can trigger delays and
cancellations creating chaos and hassles at airports.” Lower gas prices mean
that travel by car will be essentially flat this year despite the down economy,
AAA says. The number of people traveling by vehicle in North
Carolina is expected to
increase by a few thousand people. But capacity cuts and high airfares mean that
the number of people who will travel by air is expected to fall, to 294,000 this
year, from 318,000 a year ago.