Note: This article pertaining to Which is Better: Traveling by Car or by Airplane? was originally published on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at 7:00 in the evening and has been updated.
Which mode of travel you believe is better — by car or by airplane — depends on what is important to you. Factors that could affect your decision include — but not limited to — time, cost, effort, convenience, weather, schedule, and comfort.
Which is Better: Traveling by Car or by Airplane?
The Thanksgiving 2025 holiday season will be incredibly busy in terms of travel:
- The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States expects this Thanksgiving holiday travel period to be the busiest in 15 years, with today, Tuesday, November 25, 2025 being the peak travel day with greater than 52,000 flights; and is ready to get greater than 360,000 flights to their destinations.
- The travel forecast of the American Automobile Association — which is more popularly known as AAA — predicts that approximately 81.8 million people will be traveling at least 50 miles from home for the Thanksgiving holiday in 2025.
“AAA projects at least 73 million people will travel by car, that’s nearly 90 percent of Thanksgiving travelers and an additional 1.3 million people on the road compared to last Thanksgiving”, according to the aforementioned article. “That number could end up being higher if some air travelers decide to drive instead of fly following recent flight cancellations.”
One of the reasons why people may be traveling by car for Thanksgiving 2025 is because of the longest shutdown of the federal government in the history of the United States, which resulted in the cancellation or delay of tens of thousands of flights. The shutdown finally ended at Day 43 on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, as after members of the House of Representatives voted 222 to 209, the president of the United States signed into law a spending package.
Greater than 3,300 travelers responded to a simple question in 2014: Will you be flying for the holidays this year? Thirteen percent answered yes, which was a precipitous drop from the 32 percent who replied similarly in 2013.
A number of factors have caused more people to consider driving a car to their destinations rather than flying as passengers on airplanes — including but not limited to:
- Crowds and long lines
- Cost
- Convenience
- Security screenings and procedures at airport checkpoints
- Time
- Effort
- Weather — flights can be canceled; but drivers have more control over the decision to travel in inclement weather
- Schedule, as driving offers vastly more flexibility than traveling by airplane
- Comfort — you are literally in the driver’s seat
If cost is the main issue for you, air travel may not necessarily be more expensive than traveling by car depending on all of the factors involved. This handy interactive dynamic calculator can help you ascertain whether or not you should travel by airplane or by car, as it takes into account such factors as the…
- Miles per gallon of the vehicle you intend to use
- Cost of fuel for the vehicle
- Maintenance costs for your vehicle
- Miles to your destination versus to the airport you would use
- Time to reach your destination
- Lodging expenses during your road trip
- Meal expenses during your road trip
- Airfares and ancillary fees you expect to pay
- Cost to park your vehicle at the airport
- Rental car expenses
…and it gives you two visual graphic in the form of pie charts to instantly see what attributes to the percentages of your expenses.
If energy efficiency is more important to you, you may be surprised to know that — unless you drive a car that gets 33.8 gallons per mile or carry more than one passenger in your vehicle — flying as a passenger in commercial air travel is typically more fuel efficient than driving your car; but then again, that could depend on how you drive.
If potential harm to the environment is more important to you, you might be interested in reading up on this study which was released in 2014 as conducted by the Transportation Research Institute of the University of Michigan, which analyzed trends in the amount of energy needed to transport a person in the United States a given distance either in a light-duty vehicle or on a scheduled airline flight.
Safety in Traveling by Airplane
If safety is paramount to you, fly as a passenger on an airplane rather than drive a car. According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States, 37,654 traffic fatalities occurred in the United States in 2023 — or greater than 11.3 deaths per one billion vehicle miles traveled. In contrast, the chance of you suffering from a fatality from being a passenger on an airplane is remote at best.
In other words, passengers of commercial airlines reportedly die at a rate of 0.07 per billion passenger miles flown, according to this study conducted by the Department of Economics and the Transportation Center of Northwestern University.
I asked on Thursday, July 31, 2014 if commercial aviation is safe after the following four major incidents…
- A McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft which operated as Air Algerie flight 5017 crashed in Mali on Thursday, July 24, 2014 — and none of the 110 passengers and six crew members survived
- The crash of an ATR72 aircraft which operated as TransAsia Airways flight 222 in Taiwan on Wednesday, July 23, 2014 in inclement weather caused by a typhoon, carrying 54 passengers and four members of the flight crew — none of whom reportedly survived
- A Boeing 777-2H6ER aircraft which operated as Malaysia Airlines flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur had reportedly been shot down by a missile on Thursday, July 17, 2014 in eastern Ukraine near the border with Russia — all of the 298 passengers and flight crew members aboard the aircraft were reportedly killed — resulting in airlines adjusting flight routes to avoid the air space above Ukraine until further notice
- The mysterious disappearance of a Boeing 777-200 aircraft which operated as Malaysia Airlines flight 370 — carrying 227 passengers and 12 members of the flight crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing — early in the morning on Saturday, March 8, 2014 somewhere over the Gulf of Thailand en route
…but airline safety has improved significantly since then: only six people have been killed in airplane crashes in the United States between 2014 and 2023, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the Department of Transportation of the United States.
Final Boarding Call
Interestingly, I am not traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday season in 2025 — but I do have travel plans for after Thanksgiving. I will reveal what they are in an upcoming article.
As for traveling by car versus by airplane, I like both for different reasons. I enjoy long road trips; but I also like getting to my destination as soon as possible.
Fears may not allow you to have much control over your decision. If you have aviophobia or acrophobia, a flight is something which you might automatically dismiss more often than not.
Of course, there are other forms of transportation to consider — including travel by rail, bus, and vessel at sea. Many of the aforementioned factors apply to your final decision here as well, as one would definitely not book reservations for a leisurely cruise on a ship between Las Vegas and Indianapolis…
…so now it is your turn. Which is better for you: driving a car or flying as a passenger to your destination — and why?
All photographs ©2017, ©2023, ©2024, and ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
