Airports, highways, beaches and theme parks are expected to be packed for the long holiday weekend as a lot Americans mark the unofficial end of summer the same way they celebrated the season’s unofficial start:by traveling.
The Transportation Security Administration anticipates screening more than 17 million people between Thursday and next Wednesday — a record for the Labor Day period.
AAA says bookings for domestic travel are running 9% higher than last year for the holiday weekend, while international trips are down 4%.
American Airlines plans to have its largest Labor Day weekend operation ever and expects a 14% increase in passengers compared to last year.
If you are traveling to get a last blast of summer, here is a rundown of what you need to know.
Why Labor Day?
“Not everyone travels for Labor Day, not compared to July 4th or Thanksgiving — those are the most popular ones," says Aixa Diaz, a spokesperson for AAA. “But certainly Labor Day offers people a way to get away for a final weekend of the summer. You've got people who are either taking the three-day weekend or perhaps taking off the whole week before Labor Day.”
What are prices like?
Motorists are getting a break on gasoline compared with last year. The nationwide average was recently $3.44 per gallon, compared to $3.86 a year ago, according to AAA.
For electric vehicles, the average price for a kilowatt of power at an L2 commercial charging station is about 34 cents. The average is under 25 cents in Kansas and Missouri but tops 40 cents in several states, including New Hampshire, Tennessee and Kentucky. Hawaii is the costliest, at 56 cents.
Average airfares in July were down 7.1% from June and 2.8% from July 2023, according to the government's consumer price index. The trend appears to be accelerating as the peak summer-vacation season comes to an end.
“Now we're falling into that traditional fall season when demand slumps, and you’re also seeing that in airfares,” said Steve Hafner, CEO of the travel metasearch site Kayak. “Airfares are down from the summer about 26% already, and they’re down even from the previous fall, about 4%.”
When is the best time to hit the road?
If you plan to start your drive on the Thursday or Friday before Labor Day, you will be sharing the road with commuters. You might want to leave before morning rush hour or even in the evening to avoid jams.
Transportation-data provider INRIX says the worst time to travel by car on Thursday will be between 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and on Friday between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. That flips on Saturday, when you'll want to avoid driving between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.
For the return trip, pretty much all day Monday — from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. — will be a slog, according to INRIX.
And watch out for risky drivers. New data from Arity, part of insurance giant Allstate, indicates that speeding over 80 mph is up 83% and “very high speeding” — faster than 100 mph — is up more than 50%.
In a surprising twist, however, Arity says distracted driving has dropped on the last three Labor Days.
When will airports be busiest?
Friday, according to the TSA. The agency expects to screen 2.86 million people that day. While an impressive number, it would not even rank in the top 15 days in TSA's history. The single-day record of 3.01 million was set on July 7, the Sunday after Independence Day.
TSA says it has enough screeners to keep the time it takes to get through regular lines to 30 minutes or less and to no more than 10 minutes for PreCheck lines.
American Airlines says Thursday and Friday will be its busiest days, with 6,400 flights per day, followed by Labor Day itself, when the carrier has 6,300 scheduled flights.
