The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin •iHeart
Megan Singleton: What's happening with domestic travel in the US - The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin
The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin
Travel this long holiday weekend will be busy -- and not only by pandemic standards.
Experts expect it will rival the busiest Independence Day weekend of the pre-coronavirus era. Lines at airports and jams on the highways will be back with a vengeance, they say.
AAA forecasts a record number of Americans are taking to the increasingly busy roads this weekend, and warns they will encounter the most expensive July 4 gas in seven years. America's airports haven't been this busy in more than a year, and some airlines are struggling to keep up with the demand.
With crowds at the airports and cars on the highways, this weekend is expected to look similar to the times before the pandemic rocked the industry.
But reminders of the pandemic remain: Face masks are still required for all passengers -- even vaccinated ones -- on all public forms of transportation, including airplanes, trains and buses, and in hubs like rail stations and airports. Restrictions prevent or complicate international travel to many countries. Cruises are just restarting with some onboard changes. And while airlines are back to selling middle seats, many have not yet returned full alcohol service.
"Even our regular fliers are sort of first-time fliers at this point," Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told CNN.
Road trips are more popular than ever
The 47.7 million Americans that AAA forecasts will travel more than 50 miles between Thursday and Monday rivals the record-setting 2019 figure of 48.9 million.
The number of vacationers packing the car for a road trip, AAA expects, will be the largest ever: 43.6 million.
That means roads in vacation hot spots will see an even larger influx of traffic.
The transportation data firm Inrix says many cities -- from New York to Los Angeles -- are experiencing less traffic than usual this time of year, as many workers continue to sign in from home. Washington, D.C. traffic is 13 percentage points below usual, and San Francisco is down 21 percentage points. Both numbers are still higher than this time in 2020, when only 34.2 million people hit the road, AAA said.
But the story is different in the nation's tourist hubs. Nine cities in Florida -- including Tampa and Orlando -- are seeing more traffic than usual.
"This is going to be a robust travel season," said AAA spokesman Andrew Gross.
Among the factors causing families to take road trips, Gross said, is protecting unvaccinated children from crowded planes or trains, and high demand for rental cars in places they might have looked at for flights. Rental car companies that downsized fleets when demand dropped during the pandemic are now short on supply. That has driven a spike in rental prices -- when there are cars to be had.
Gas prices are also climbing, and the national average of $3.12 on Thursday is the most expensive since reaching $3.66 in 2014. Prices at the pump reflect not only the demand for fuel, but the challenge to get it delivered to gas stations around the country. Some stations may run out, AAA says.
"It's not that we have a gas supply issue in this country," Gross said. "There just are not enough gas tank drivers available, because during the pandemic, there weren't a lot of deliveries, so these drivers -- highly in demand -- they went off and found other jobs."
The unruly skies
Air travel at some vacation hot spots -- such as Nashville and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina -- is already exceeding pre-pandemic levels, the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday. Officials launched a campaign to hire 6,000 workers, and the agency said it will continue staffing up through Labor Day.
July 4 travel kicked off with one of the busiest days at airports in 16 months.
The TSA reported screening 2,147,090 passengers on Thursday. That number fell just short of the record-setting 2.17 million screened last Sunday. TSA said it...
Experts expect it will rival the busiest Independence Day weekend of the pre-coronavirus era. Lines at airports and jams on the highways will be back with a vengeance, they say.
AAA forecasts a record number of Americans are taking to the increasingly busy roads this weekend, and warns they will encounter the most expensive July 4 gas in seven years. America's airports haven't been this busy in more than a year, and some airlines are struggling to keep up with the demand.
With crowds at the airports and cars on the highways, this weekend is expected to look similar to the times before the pandemic rocked the industry.
But reminders of the pandemic remain: Face masks are still required for all passengers -- even vaccinated ones -- on all public forms of transportation, including airplanes, trains and buses, and in hubs like rail stations and airports. Restrictions prevent or complicate international travel to many countries. Cruises are just restarting with some onboard changes. And while airlines are back to selling middle seats, many have not yet returned full alcohol service.
"Even our regular fliers are sort of first-time fliers at this point," Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told CNN.
Road trips are more popular than ever
The 47.7 million Americans that AAA forecasts will travel more than 50 miles between Thursday and Monday rivals the record-setting 2019 figure of 48.9 million.
The number of vacationers packing the car for a road trip, AAA expects, will be the largest ever: 43.6 million.
That means roads in vacation hot spots will see an even larger influx of traffic.
The transportation data firm Inrix says many cities -- from New York to Los Angeles -- are experiencing less traffic than usual this time of year, as many workers continue to sign in from home. Washington, D.C. traffic is 13 percentage points below usual, and San Francisco is down 21 percentage points. Both numbers are still higher than this time in 2020, when only 34.2 million people hit the road, AAA said.
But the story is different in the nation's tourist hubs. Nine cities in Florida -- including Tampa and Orlando -- are seeing more traffic than usual.
"This is going to be a robust travel season," said AAA spokesman Andrew Gross.
Among the factors causing families to take road trips, Gross said, is protecting unvaccinated children from crowded planes or trains, and high demand for rental cars in places they might have looked at for flights. Rental car companies that downsized fleets when demand dropped during the pandemic are now short on supply. That has driven a spike in rental prices -- when there are cars to be had.
Gas prices are also climbing, and the national average of $3.12 on Thursday is the most expensive since reaching $3.66 in 2014. Prices at the pump reflect not only the demand for fuel, but the challenge to get it delivered to gas stations around the country. Some stations may run out, AAA says.
"It's not that we have a gas supply issue in this country," Gross said. "There just are not enough gas tank drivers available, because during the pandemic, there weren't a lot of deliveries, so these drivers -- highly in demand -- they went off and found other jobs."
The unruly skies
Air travel at some vacation hot spots -- such as Nashville and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina -- is already exceeding pre-pandemic levels, the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday. Officials launched a campaign to hire 6,000 workers, and the agency said it will continue staffing up through Labor Day.
July 4 travel kicked off with one of the busiest days at airports in 16 months.
The TSA reported screening 2,147,090 passengers on Thursday. That number fell just short of the record-setting 2.17 million screened last Sunday. TSA said it...
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