Roads will be busy and airports will be packed.
Memorial Day weekend is projected to be busy for travelers in 2023. The American Automobile Association (AAA) projects that 42.3 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles from home over Memorial Day weekend—2.7 million more travelers than in 2022.
Air travel is expected to see a big surge, with 11% more travelers taking to the airways for their Memorial Day journeys this year. Holiday weekend travel is expected to exceed 2019 levels, indicating that air passenger traffic has finally grown past the post-pandemic period—at least for this particular weekend. AAA is projecting that this weekend could be the busiest at the nation’s airports since 2005.
Auto travelers will also notice more crowded roadways compared to last year. Over 37 million Americans will take to the open road to reach their destination—a 6% increase over last year. Gas prices are lower than in 2022, but unlike air travelers, overall auto travel numbers are not yet expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels, with this year’s projection still half a million travelers short of observed 2019 peaks.
The largest percentage increase in travelers is expected on buses and trains, with a 20.6% increase over 2022. However, this mode of transport is proportionally much smaller than either air travel or auto travel—with less than 2 million travelers opting for non-auto surface transport.
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AAA enlisted INRIX, a transportation data firm to project which cities and times will likely see the highest rates of road congestion. INRIX estimates that Friday, May 25, will be the busiest day for auto travelers, and recommends that travelers wanting to avoid the worst of the traffic travel by traveling before 1 p.m. on Thursday or before noon on Friday. Returning drivers should take to the roads before 10 a.m. on Monday. Travelers can also avoid the worst of the traffic by traveling on days projected to be lighter, like Saturday, May 26, and Sunday, May 27.
Major road corridors expected to have the biggest increase in average travel times compared to a typical weekend include Ellensburg, Washington, to Seattle via I-90W; Gainesville, Florida, to Tampa via I-75S; Jersey Shore to New York City via Garden State Pkwy N; and Nantucket to Boston via Pilgrim Hwy N. Other corridors projected to be significantly busier than normal include Williamsburg, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., via I-95N; San Francisco to Napa via I-80E; and Fort Collins, Colorado, to Denver via I-25S.
AAA Travel also noted the top destinations from internal booking data for the holiday weekend. Cities like Orlando, New York, and Las Vegas were the most popular with travelers, in addition to cruise port cities in Florida (for the Caribbean) and Seattle (for Alaska). AAA Travel also observed a whopping 50% increase in cruise bookings compared to 2022.
A byproduct of booming demand is booming costs. AAA estimates that airfares are 40% higher to this year’s top destinations than last year—but that didn’t stop the traffic projections from also pushing higher versus 2022. International travel is on track to be even more expensive, with international bookings up an eye-popping 250% over 2022, particularly to perennial Europeans favorites like Rome, Paris, Dublin, London, Barcelona, and Athens. Hotel room rates are already expected to be significantly higher in Europe in the summer of 2023, and Memorial Day is traditionally the holiday weekend that marks the unofficial start of the busy Summer travel season.
As travel normalizes in the post-pandemic period, the challenges facing many travel organizations still have not let up. Many travel companies face labor woes, struggling to staff adequately, and with existing workers picketing or threatening to strike. Other companies may face lingering supply chain issues or delays in returning their products to a pre-pandemic level of service—such as hotels no longer cleaning rooms daily unless asked, or continuing to provide room service meals in unattractive disposable take-out containers.
Whether traveling by car, rail, bus, or air, travelers should pack patience when traveling during peak demand periods around major holidays, and Memorial Day this year should prove no exception.
You have the dates wrong, Saturday is May 27 and Sundayis May 28.