INDIANA – Motorists will be hitting the road to celebrate Memorial Day weekend.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) is warning of potentially unprecedented congestion on highways and crowded airports for the Memorial Day weekend. AAA says an estimated 43.8 million people across the U.S. will likely travel at least 50 miles from Thursday, May 23 to Monday, May 27.
AAA says that would be a 4% increase in overall travel compared to 2023. It would also approach the busiest Memorial Day weekend on record when 44 million people left home in 2005.
“We haven’t seen Memorial Day weekend travel numbers like these in almost 20 years,” Paula Twidale, the Senior VP of AAA’s travel division, said in a statement. “We’re projecting an additional one million travelers this holiday weekend compared to 2019, which not only means we’re exceeding pre-pandemic levels but also signals a very busy summer travel season ahead.”
AAA estimates that 38.4 million people will travel in cars over the weekend. That would be the highest number recorded around the Memorial Day holiday since the group first started tracking travel patterns in 2000.
According to car rental company Hertz, vehicle demand this year will be highest in Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, and Orlando. Hertz tells AAA most renters are scheduled to pick up their cars on Thursday and Friday.
Meanwhile, U.S. airports expect another travel spike. An estimated 3.51 million people will fly this weekend, AAA says, up from the 3.35 million who traveled on planes to their destinations last year. That could be the most crowded Memorial Day weekend at airports since 2005. That year, according to AAA, 3.64 million people caught flights for the holiday.
