Driving to the relatives’ house will be noticeably more expensive this Thanksgiving, as the average price of gasoline remains above $2 a gallon.
AAA reported Tuesday that the average gallon of regular unleaded fuel in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett region was $2.04. That’s 43 cents a gallon above the price at Thanksgiving 2003.
It’s also 4 cents above the region’s average gas price on Labor Day. In past years, prices have gone down steadily between Labor Day and the winter holiday season.
The main culprit seems to be high crude oil costs. Several weeks ago, oil futures soared above $50 a barrel for the first time and have remained well above $40 a barrel since. On Tuesday, crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose above $50 again, but settled at $48.94.
In fact, fuel prices at the retail pump have been going down. A month ago, the regional average for unleaded fuel was $2.09 a gallon.
While gasoline prices are far higher than a year ago, some air fares and other travel costs are lower than they have been in several years. An estimated 4.6 million people are expected to travel by plane this holiday, said Janet Ray, state spokeswoman for AAA.
“What we’ve found with air travel is this is the first Thanksgiving to reach pre-9-11 levels,” she said.
Another 30.6 million people are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home in motor vehicles during the long Thanksgiving weekend.
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