Holiday travel forecast: When to fly, drive this Christmas and New Year’s
Travelers at airport (martin-dm/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — This Christmas and New Year’s holiday period is expected to be the busiest on record.
More than 122 million people are expected to travel between Dec. 20 and Jan. 1 — a 2.2% jump from last year’s record high of 119.7 million travelers, according to AAA.
Here’s what you need to know before you head to the airport or hit the road:
Air travel
About 8.03 million people are expected to fly within the U.S. over the holidays — a 2.3% increase from last year, according to AAA.
Florida, Southern California and Hawaii are topping the domestic destinations list for the holidays, according to AAA’s booking data, showing many travelers have decided to forgo a white Christmas for fun in the sun.
United Airlines said it is expecting its busiest winter holiday season ever, with the Saturday after Christmas — Dec. 27 — forecast to be the airline’s most crowded day.
American Airlines said its planning for four flights to depart each minute over its holiday period, from Dec. 18 through Jan. 5. American said its busiest day will be Friday, Dec. 19, followed by Sunday, Jan. 4.
The Transportation Security Administration said it anticipates Sunday, Dec. 28, will be its busiest day, followed by Sunday, Dec. 27, and Monday, Dec. 29, as people return from Christmas trips and head out for New Year’s.
Road travel
About 109.5 million people are forecast to travel by car over the holidays, up 2% from last year, AAA said.
The weekend before Christmas — which falls on Saturday, Dec. 20, and Sunday, Dec. 21 — is expected to be especially busy, and so is the day after Christmas, Friday, Dec. 26, according to analytics company INRIX.
Christmas Day and New Year’s Day — which both fall on Thursdays — are anticipated to be the quietest days on the roads, INRIX said.
And some good news for drivers: GasBuddy said the national average for gas prices has dropped to $2.79 per gallon as of Dec. 22.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 01, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) – A police officer who searched accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione’s backpack when he was apprehended at an Pennsylvania McDonald’s took the stand on Monday for the fourth day of a crucial pretrial hearing in which Mangione’s defense lawyers are trying to exclude from trial critical evidence that they say was illegally seized from his backpack without a warrant.
“Holly Jolly Christmas” was playing in the Altoona McDonald’s on Dec. 9, 2024, when officer Christy Wasser — a 19-year Altoona Police Department veteran — searched Mangione’s backpack, immediately pulling a pocketknife and a loaf of bread.
When Mangione was formally placed under arrest at 9:58 a.m., Wasser testified that she “walked over and picked up his backpack.”
Two minutes into the search, Wasser was seen on body camera video extracting “wet, grey underwear” from the backpack. “And when I opened it up, it was a magazine,” she testified.
Prosecutor Joel Seidemann asked it was “fully loaded,” and Wasser responded, “Yes.”
Wasser also said she discovered a phone in a Faraday bag, designed to conceal its signal.
An officer was heard suggesting that the bag be brought to the police station to check for bombs. Wasser was heard joking that she preferred to check it at the McDonald’s because she “didn’t want to pull a Moser” — a sarcastic reference, she said, to a former Altoona officer who brought a bomb to the police station.
At 10:03 a.m. an officer was heard on the camera footage mentioning a search warrant. A different officer was heard saying that one was not needed at that stage.
Defense lawyers have argued Wasser’s actions violated Mangione’s constitutional rights and should justify excluding any of the evidence found in the bag, including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession.
“[The officer] did not search the bag because she reasonably thought there might be a bomb, but rather this was an excuse designed to cover up an illegal warrantless search of the backpack,” defense attorneys argued in a court filing. “This made-up bomb claim further shows that even she believed at the time that there were constitutional issues with her search, forcing her to attempt to salvage this debacle by making this spurious claim.”
Prosecutor Nichole Smith of Pennsylvania’s Blair County District Attorney’s office also testified, outlining the chain of custody of items seized from Mangione, who was apprehended five days after he allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk.
Smith recalled a lieutenant from the Altoona Police Department calling her at 9:53 a.m. to advise her “that he had the individual responsible for the CEO shooting” at McDonald’s. Smith said she was in court at the time and interrupted the proceeding to inform her boss, Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks.
Smith said she and Weeks advised Altoona police to charge Mangione with forgery, carrying a firearm without a license, tampering with records for identification, possessing instruments of a crime and providing false identification to law enforcement.
Smith described a search warrant that obtained a court’s permission to seize Mangione’s belongings, including items in his backpack, and transfer them to the NYPD.
“Certain items in that bag were not inherently contraband, so we wanted to ensure that the court had approved,” Smith testified. “When they search the bag and they discover, for instance, the firearm, the ammunition and the suppressor, when he does not have a valid permit to carry those items concealed, they become contraband.”
Handwritten notes that police said they also discovered in Mangione’s backpack were not relevant to the local charges in Pennsylvania. Ordinarily, they would have been put aside and saved. The warrant allowed those items to be transferred as possible evidence in the New York case.
Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo objected to Seidemann referring to the writings as an alleged “manifesto” and Thompson’s killing as an “execution.” Judge Gregory Carro said it was fine for the ongoing suppression hearing but said, “You’re certainly not going to do that at trial.”
Last week, during the first week of the hearing, prosecutors called six witnesses, including the police officers who first confronted Mangione and the corrections officers who were tasked with constantly monitoring him before his transfer from a cell in Pennsylvania to New York.
Last week’s testimony shed new light on the events leading up to and following Mangione’s arrest, with the two officers who initially confronted Mangione recounting their experiences for the first time.
“It’s him. I have been seeing all the pictures. He is nervous as hell. I ask him, ‘Have you been in New York,’ he’s all quiet,” Altoona police officer Joseph Detwiler testified on Tuesday.
Prosecutors also showed in court never-before-seen security camera footage that captured the chilling moments after Mangione allegedly shot and killed Thompson in the predawn cold of New York City’s early winter. The videos provided the public with a clearer picture of the shooting and emergency response, as well as clues about the case prosecutors have built against the alleged killer.
At least three people were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, including a woman just feet away from the suspect. The woman’s identity and whether she has spoken with police are not known.
The video also shows the suspect — after firing multiple shots — walk toward the victim, glance down at him, cross the street, then run toward a nearby alleyway. A woman holding a cup of coffee outside the famed New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue is seen flinching after hearing the first gunshot, after which she sees Thompson stumble, then appears to look straight at the gunman before running off.
Seconds later, a man inside the hotel exits, sees Thompson on the ground, then appears to point to a nearby alleyway where the suspect fled.
A bouquet is left outside of the engineering and physics building at Brown University, the site of a mass shooting yesterday that left at least two people dead and nine others injured, on December 14, 2025, in Providence, Rhode Island. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The anxiety level among Rhode Islanders “has risen” since a person of interest was released from custody amid a manhunt for an assailant who fatally shot two Brown University students on Saturday, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.
As the investigation to identify a suspect stretched into its third day, the person initially detained in connection with the Brown University mass shooting has been “effectively cleared,” the Rhode Island state attorney general told ABC News on Monday.
“The evidence that we have, the scientific evidence that we have available to us, after it was analyzed, made clear that this was not someone who should be detained in connection with this case,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said on ABC News’ “GMA3.” “So we released him and then moved on, looking at other evidence and pursuing other leads pointing at additional potential individuals.”
Investigators are now bringing additional teams to canvass for video, analyze images, and sweep the crime scene for fingerprints as they work to build a more detailed timeline and, potentially, identify a suspect.
ABC News observed members of the FBI evidence response unit using a K-9 on Monday to canvas the area around the crime scene at Brown University.
“We understand that there’s a high degree of anxiety and after this individual was released last night, I understand that anxiety level has risen in our community,” Smiley told ABC News on Monday. “But it’s no different than a day ago, which is that we’ve received — continue to receive zero credible threats to our community, Brown or the broader community.”
Smiley’s comments came as federal and local law enforcement officials were continuing their investigation early on Monday, two days after the mass shooting in an academic building in Providence on Saturday.
A person of interest in the case, who had been taken into custody early on Sunday, was released later in the day, after authorities said that there was no basis to continue detaining them.
“Tonight, we announced that the person of interest is being released. The investigation has been ongoing and remains fully active between all agencies,” the Providence Police Department said in a statement early on Monday. “Since the first call to 911, we have not received any specific threats to our community.”
Smiley wouldn’t on Monday definitely say whether the person of interest who was released was cleared of all connection to the case. He also declined to say whether the investigation was pointing toward a student or someone from off-campus.
“We cannot comment on that and we’re exploring all possible leads,” he said.
Two people were killed and nine were injured in the shooting, according to officials. The injured victims were transported to local hospitals amid a day of “devastating gun violence,” Christina H. Paxson, the university’s president, said in a statement posted early on Sunday.
“Every year, emergency responders and students drill for the unthinkable — a shooting at our schools,” Gov. Dan McKee said in his own statement. “Yesterday, that action became all too real when a gunman opened fire on a classroom of innocent Brown University students.”
The FBI and other law enforcement officials shared a short video clip of someone whom they described as a person of interest. The individual in the clip is seen dressed in dark clothing, including what appeared to be a hood, as they walk along Hope Street and take a corner heading north.
The person’s right hand appeared to be in their jacket pocket as they walked northward along Waterman Street before exiting from the frame.
Officials said they still believe the person seen in that video is a person of interest in the shooting.
The person of interest who was detained and released on Sunday was initially caught at about 3:45 a.m. at a hotel in Coventry, about 28 miles south of Providence, according to law enforcement sources and Coventry police.
Law enforcement sources described the detained person of interest as a man in his mid-20s from Wisconsin. At the time the person was detained, the individual was allegedly in possession of two guns, according to sources.
There was “no basis” to keep the person detained, Attorney General of Rhode Island Peter Neronha said.
“Sometimes you head in one direction and have to regroup and go in another,” Neronha said. “That’s exactly what’s happened over the last 24 hours or so.”
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik, Aaron Katersky, Luke Barr, Pierre Thomas and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
Colorado mom Astrid Storey, a thyroid cancer patient with an autoimmune disorder, was recently notified that her monthly premiums under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will jump by nearly $500 in 2026. A naturalized U.S. citizen from Panama, she said she’s now contemplating what was once unthinkable: giving up her American dream and moving to a country with universal health care.
Nathan Boye of Orlando, Florida, has diabetes and said he’s been informed the monthly premiums for his ACA policy would soar from $28 to more than $700. The married father-of-three said he is now considering foregoing health insurance altogether.
And Doug Butchart, whose wife, Shadene, is living with the neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) said he doesn’t know how he’s going to pay for her medications. A retired mechanic from Elgin, Illinois, Butchart said he’s gotten a notice that the monthly premiums on his wife’s ACA policy will climb to $2,000. Combined with an annual deductible of more than $8,000 and $10,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, he said his wife’s health care costs will total more than his monthly Social Security check, which they both live on.
An estimated 22 million of the 24 million ACA marketplace enrollees are currently receiving enhanced premium tax credits to lower their monthly premiums, which were part of the original ACA legislation and expanded in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic under the American Rescue Plan. But with the tax credits set to expire at the end of this year, many policyholders are learning the ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare, will no longer be affordable unless Congress intervenes.
An extension of the tax credits was not included in President Donald Trump’s megabill, which was signed into law in July.
The issue has become a political football, prolonging the government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history.
The majority of Democrats have refused to vote to reopen the government until Republicans agree to extend the ACA subsidies. But GOP leaders say they won’t negotiate until a clean funding bill passes and the government reopens.
As both sides blame each other for the shutdown, millions of Americans who bought into the ACA marketplace find themselves caught in the crossfire of the stalemate.
Premiums set to rise even without the tax credits Storey, a graphic designer and owner of a small business in Denver, said she doesn’t receive the ACA tax credits. But in a notice from her insurance provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield, which she shared with ABC News, her monthly premiums are set to rise from $1,400 to nearly $1,900.
“I have an autoimmune disease, and I also have thyroid cancer. So, I had very specific needs as to which doctors and which medicines I needed to have covered in this plan,” Storey said, adding that she has a $2,000 deductible and many out-of-pocket expenses.
Storey, 45, said she purchased her policy through Connect for Health Colorado, her state’s ACA portal, and has been working with a broker provided by the insurance carrier to help navigate the added costs.
Storey said her husband, Denis, who has been doing contracting work for her business, has taken a part-time job at a Starbucks to help make ends meet. But Storey said there is a limit to how much more she can pay for health care.
If her premium rises to $2,500 a month, she said that she and her family will sell all their belongings and leave the country. Storey said she also has citizenship in Panama and Spain, the latter of which has universal health care.
“I have a lot of feelings about being run out of my country because of health care costs,” Storey said. “The American dream is a disappointment when it comes to health care.”
In a statement to ABC News, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said that its ACA plan rates “reflect the care and costs we expect members to use next year. Like other insurers, we’re seeing higher utilization and more complex care among ACA members — particularly in emergency room visits, behavioral health and specialty pharmacy. For instance, ACA members use the ER at nearly twice the rate of those with employer-sponsored coverage.”
Laid off due to tariffs, now facing more than a 2,500% jump in premiums Boye, from Florida, said he currently pays $28 a month for his ACA plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield, and that 90% of the medications he needs to control his diabetes are covered.
He was notified last month that the monthly premium is set to rise to $733 without financial help, a 2,518% increase.
Boye told ABC News on Thursday that after doing more research and reapplying through the ACA portal, he found a plan that has monthly premiums of $113 a month, contingent on a $620 tax credit.
Boye said he qualified for the ACA tax credits after he was laid off earlier this year as an operations manager for a company that imported medical supplies from China.
“We had to close down because of the tariff. It made it impossible to import,” Boye said.
While he has picked up part-time work, he said he enrolled at Valencia College in Orlando to finish his degree in business administration.
His wife, he said, has insurance through her job as a teacher’s assistant at the University of Central Florida, where she is also studying history. He said their three children, ages 11 to 16, are insured through Medicaid.
Boye said he won’t be able to pay the increase in his premiums, and is hoping Congress works out a deal to restore the ACA tax credits.
He said he has until mid-December to reenroll in his plan. But if the tax credits are not restored, Boye said he is contemplating making a radical change.
“I gave up on the idea of having health care,” Boye said.
Boye said he’s already started researching discount drug companies and cash-pay programs on how he can purchase on his own the two primary medications he uses to control diabetes. He showed ABC News an invoice he got in September indicating his insurance covered the $1,669 price of his primary medication, Jardiance.
Boye said his current predicament has left him feeling like a “tiny fish that does not matter.”
“Realistically, I have no control over any of this,” he said. “I’m just a person who has to navigate the waters and find a solution.”
In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Florida Blue said that, next year, there will be “higher insurance costs for many, and government financial help (premium tax credits) will decrease if the enhanced premium tax credits expire, as they are planned to.”
The organization said it understood members’ concerns and is committed to supporting members, but added that premium increases “are an industry-wide issue, a necessary but concerning response to federal regulatory changes including the scheduled expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits at the end of 2025, as well as the rising cost and utilization of medical care and prescription drugs.”
‘It’s real people that all of this is affecting’ The Butcharts, from Illinois, traveled to Washington, D.C., this week with members of the Muscular Dystrophy Association to discuss their precarious situation with congressional leaders, including their two Illinois senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats.
The 67-year-old Doug Butchart said he wanted to show the lawmakers “that it’s for real, that it’s real people that all of this is affecting.”
Butchart said he has received notification, which he shared with ABC News, that the monthly premiums on his wife’s ACA policy through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois will rise from $603.82 to up to $2,000 without the tax credits in 2026. According to the notice he received, even with a tax credit estimated at $738, the monthly premium would be nearly $1,400.
“It’s insane,” Butchart told ABC News.
He said his 58-year-old wife was diagnosed with ALS eight years ago, adding that about 10% of ALS patients survive that long.
Butchart said his wife’s main medication, Radicava, costs about $15,000 a month, and another medication costs $4,000 for a three-month supply.
While insurance has covered most of their medical costs, Butchart said his wife’s out-of-pocket expenses last year were about $3,000.
He said that without the tax credits, and on top of the increased monthly premiums, his wife will have an $8,000 deductible in 2026, and her out-of-pocket expenses could top $10,000.
“That’s a lot of money, way more money than we get in a year,” said Butchart.
He said he and his wife live off his Social Security income and that she does not qualify for Medicaid or any disability income.
“I don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we’re in debt. I’m not 20 years old or 30 years old where I can go out and get a second job,” Butchart said.
In a statement to ABC News, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois said it “remains steadfast in its commitment to a stable health insurance market with competitive plan choices in the individual market, as we have since the inception of the ACA.”
“The rates for 2026 coverage include both new and current individual ACA-compliant plans and reflects industry-wide changes to the market, including the anticipated expiration of enhanced premium tax credits at the end of 2025. Plans are priced to reflect anticipated health care needs,” the company said.
But Butchart said the he still doesn’t see how the company can “justify” such increases in premiums.
“I wish the people who are making decisions and setting the prices were in the same position as we are,” Butchart said.
ABC News’ Kristopher Anderson contributed to this report.
