Travelers faced large crowds and flight delays on Friday, which is expected to be the busiest day of the year. Memorial Day rest
More than 6,000 U.S. flights were delayed by early afternoon on the East Coast, continuing a trend that has tested travelers’ patience all week. According to FlightAware tracking data, there were fewer than 200 cancellations.
There were also delays on the roads.
Along the Florida Turnpike, Wallis Tinney said a traffic accident and road construction delayed her trip to celebrate African-American history in the Florida Panhandle, the site of the first battle of the Seminole Wars in 1816.
“But we’re comfortable with it,” the Miami woman said during a stop in Port St. Lucie. “We leave early and our event is tomorrow. So hopefully, God willing, the creek doesn’t rise, we’ll be there in plenty of time.”
The Transportation Security Administration predicted that Friday would be the busiest holiday weekend for air travel, with about 3 million people expected to cross. airport checkpoints. The TSA screened just under 2.9 million people on Thursday, nearly 11,000 more than the record set for the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year.
“The airports are busier than we have seen in 20 years,” said AAA spokeswoman Aissa Díaz.
Highway closures are also likely as drivers leave the city and then return home. AAA predicted it would be the busiest early summer weekend in nearly 20 years, with 43.8 million people expected to travel at least 50 miles from home from Thursday to Monday, 38 million of them driving.
The annual wanderlust that accompanies the start of the summer travel season comes at a time when American survey participants are concerned about the economy and the direction of the country.
“Memorial Day is a day off. I reach out to family and friends, so I’d say it’s priceless, right? Nene Efebo said during the two-hour wait for a delayed flight at Denver International Airport. “Anything to get together with family and friends.”
Victoria Ramos Valdez of Miami was on vacation driving with her husband, Blake, and their 3- and 4-month-old children.
“We said, hey, we’re going to have a budget of $300, and the hotel is about $150,” he said, but it has a water slide and offers a lot of fun. “We are going to take a nice family trip and do everything we can to have the best Memorial Day weekend.”
Some travelers have reported experiencing sticker shock when booking their trips. Arriving at Philadelphia International Airport, Ciarra Marsh said the city “wasn’t our original destination, but we chose it because it was cheaper.”
At Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, Larissa Latimer of New Lenox, Illinois, said her airfare was reasonable, but the other costs of a trip to New Orleans were not.
“I just have to build the house,” he said. “No more car rentals… hotel accommodation has been very expensive this year.”
Kathy Larco of Fort Myers, Florida, used frequent flyer miles and some flexible schedules to pay for her trip to Chicago.
“I am very conscious of taking into account the cost of the entire trip. “We stayed a little further away than usual” to get a lower hotel rate, she said. “We also fly later because we can get cheaper miles.”
Weekend highway traffic and busy airports could be a preview of what’s in store in the coming weeks. American planes waiting to be taken Record number of passengers in summer. Its trade group estimates that 271 million travelers flew between June 1 and August 31, breaking the record of 255 million from (you guessed it) last summer.
Koenig Writers for the Associated Press.
