news-record.com

GREENSBORO — The trip to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving will be more expensive for Triad motorists this year because of a rise in gas prices of more than 60 cents a gallon in the past 12 months.

The blow to drivers’ pocketbooks will be softened somewhat because fuel prices in some areas, including the Triad, have declined a few cents in recent days.

At some Triad stations, the cost of a gallon of unleaded regular has dropped below $2.50, giving the area some of the cheapest gas in the state.

“Right now, it’s very likely that prices will remain depressed,” said Tom Crosby, a spokesman for AAA Carolinas, a Charlotte-based motor club. “They may continue to drop a little bit as they have this past week.”

Across North Carolina, gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon Monday. Last Thanksgiving, it cost an average of $1.96.

Locally, gas prices have dropped about a nickel a gallon since late October.

“I just don’t see any big increases or decreases upcoming for the rest of the year,” said Doug MacIntyre, senior oil analyst for the Energy Information Administration in Washington. “If prices stay within a 10 cent range, I think that is fairly stable.”

Despite the year-to-year increase in gas prices, highway travel should increase by 3.1 percent in North Carolina over last year, AAA reported.

The increase reflects a growing sense among consumers that the worst of the economic crisis has passed, AAA said.

“Thanksgiving is a family holiday and after a year of economic turmoil people want to get away,” David E. Parsons, president and CEO of AAA Carolinas, said in a news release. “Gas prices have been creeping upward (in the past year) ... but it isn’t enough to deter most people’s vacation plans.”

AAA said airfare, lodging and rental car costs will be lower. Even so, air travel is expected to decline by 6.6 percent, marking the third consecutive year that fewer Tar Heels have chosen to fly.

AAA blamed the decline on new fees for baggage handling and other services, surcharges for Thanksgiving travel, a reduction in the number of flights, smaller capacity planes and poor performance.

Nationally, one of every five flights is delayed an average of 48 minutes.

Some Tar Heel motorists could face travel problems as well.

Delays are expected in western North Carolina because of a rock slide that closed a section of Interstate 40. In addition, there will be construction-related lane closures in both directions on Interstate 85 at mile marker 113 near High Point.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com