11.3 million Californians travel from Christmas Day to New Year

According to the Automobile Club of Southern California, the number of air and road travellers from southern California this winter season is likely to be larger than in 2008, but the figure is expected to be lesser than before the recession struck the US.

The officials of Automobile Club informed that nearly 400,000 holidaymakers will take a flight to their destinations and about 6.16 million will drive. State-wide, about 11.3 million residents will travel during the holiday period, an 11 per cent increase over a year ago. Of those, 640,000 are expected to travel by air and 10 million by land.

Automobile Club’s spokesman Jeffrey Spring commented that 2009’s holiday travel increase is positive, but still, it follows a 36 per cent drop in the number of Christmas holidaymakers after the recession started in 2007.

At least 2.4 million passengers are going to fly out of Los Angeles Airport from 19 December to 2 January, stated airport spokeswoman Katherine Alvarado. She said that the estimates should exceed 2008′s figure by 1.9 per cent. However, the number of passengers is expected to be higher than earlier projections because many airlines changed schedules to accommodate huge passenger demand during the holiday season, resulting in more flight services to and from Los Angeles.

At the Cruise America’s rental centre in Carson, employees for the past three days had taken about 20 reservations for motor homes. Manager Oscar Mora said that vehicle reservations are on the rise, with two to three bookings transacted every day.

Many of the rented vehicles are being booked by local families for their loved ones visiting Los Angeles. Mora said that motor homes, which cost $69 per day, are cheaper than renting a car and booking a hotel.