AAA: High number of travelers anticipated for Memorial Day, some traffic expected
As the cold weather continues to melt away into a warm summer, early data from AAA is showing that local families are itching to start celebrating the unofficial start of season.
During the upcoming holiday, the travel group says that over 42 million Americans are projected to travel over 50 miles from their home to celebrate Memorial Day weekend. This year's travel data is showing a 7% increase from the same period in 2022, with the increase of 2.7 million travelers creating the third busiest Memorial Day travel surge since AAA began tracking this data in 2000.
“The world has reopened and there is a lot of pent-up demand for travel,” said Bevi Powell, senior vice president of AAA East Central. “From unique destinations like Egypt to the always popular beach trips and cruises, more Americans are planning those special vacations this summer with family and friends.”
As typical with holiday travel in the United States, the most popular method of travel remains automobiles. Across the nation, communities are seeing a 6% increase in planned road trips and 37 million Americans will hit the roadways on Memorial Day weekend. While prices at the pump are lower than last year, automobile travel is still slightly lagging behind the numbers seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the mid-Atlantic region, the travel forecast is calling for 4.5 million motorists across roadways in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. While not as common in the western Pennsylvania region, alternative transportation such as buses and trains are expected to see 124,000 travelers use their services over the weekend and will have an 8.7% increase in ridership since 2022.
While traffic will vary throughout the weekend, experts are recommending that the best time to travel is during the morning to avoid spikes in traffic that will begin to rise after noon. According to predictions, the worst times to travel on Thursday and Friday are from 3 to 6 p.m. and Monday will see increased traffic from 12 to 3 p.m. as many families return from vacations. Fortunately, traffic impact on Saturday and Sunday is likely to be minimal.
As motorists fill the roads, travelers opting to get to their destination by air will also see some congestion as 3.4 million travelers around the country board flights over the weekend. For many communities, air travel has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels and there has been an 11% increase in the number of passengers since 2022.
"Despite high ticket prices, demand for flights is skyrocketing," AAA travel experts wrote. "This Memorial Day weekend could be the busiest at airports since 2005."
Across the mid-Atlantic region, air travel has seen an increase of 8.9% from 2022 and 342,000 residents are expected to travel by plane over the weekend. Popular spots this year include many of the staples: Orlando, New York City, Las Vegas, Alaska and Seattle. However, some travelers are also opting to go to locations such as Denver, Boston, Anaheim and Canton, Ohio.
International travel is also a popular option for this weekend, with bookings rising by 250% for foreign destinations compared to last year. Popular locations "across the pond" typically include Rome, Paris, Dublin, London, Barcelona and Athens. Passport services are also seeing increased traffic during this time, which may be a sign of other foreign travel plans becoming popular in the coming months.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: AAA: High number of travelers expected for Memorial Day
