Memorial Day Travel Expected to Break Records

Memorial Day Weekend – May 25-27 – is the unofficial kick-off of summer and it is expected to kick start what will be a record-breaking summer travel season.

Booking data reveals that theme park and entertainment venues like Orlando and Las Vegas continue to captivate travelers' interest, alongside sunny locales such as Fort Lauderdale, Southern California and Miami. Urban destinations including New York, Denver and Boston also rank high among Memorial Day getaway choices.

Both roads and airports will be extremely busy – here’s more on what’s expected for this record-breaking weekend.

Road Travel

AAA forecasts almost 44 million travelers—nearly 90% of whom will travel by car—for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, up by one million compared to 2019. Busiest times to hit the road to kick off the weekend are Thursday between noon and 6 p.m. and Friday between noon and 7 p.m. Over the weekend, peak traffic is anticipated to be between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Air Travel

TSA is preparing for what is projected to be the busiest summer on record for air travelers, with an estimated 8-10% increase in passenger volume—and they are well-prepared to meet this increase in demand. This represents a 35% increase over pre-pandemic air travel volumes. United Airlines is forecasting its busiest Memorial Day weekend on record, with more than 3 million travelers expected to fly between May 23 and 28 — up 5% from the comparable period last year.

The record-setting number of air travelers expected this summer further prove the need for the innovative screening technologies that TSA has in place in many U.S. airports—including facial recognition, TSA PreCheck Touchless Identity Solution and TSA PreCheck. These technologies enhance security and efficiency in airports nationwide – and when we are faced with increasing numbers of travelers, we all want to get to our destinations as safely and quickly as possible.

Travel Prices

Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and using that data, U.S. Travel calculates a Travel Price Index (TPI) as an indicator for prices of travel related goods and services. For the month of April, the TPI was up 0.4% on a monthly basis, only slightly higher than the overall inflation index (0.3%). However, TPI growth has recently been lower than overall inflation, and on a year-over-year basis was up 1.5% in April, significantly below the 3.4% measure for all goods. This indicates travel prices experienced less inflation than the economy overall – encouraging news for travelers ahead of the busy summer travel season.