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According to the AAA travel forecast released Monday, 42.3 million passengers will travel 50 miles or more over Memorial Day weekend. That number marks 2.7 million more people traveling for the unofficial start of summer than last year, a 7 percent increase.
Rising airfare is not affecting ticket sales. Nearly 3.4 million travelers are expected to fly to their destinations, an 11 percent increase over 2022. Air travel is projected to exceed prepandemic Memorial Day Weekend levels by 5.4 percent, or 170,000 passengers.
Road trips also are on the rise: 37.1 million travelers are expected to drive to their destinations, a year-over-year increase of 6 percent, or more than two million people. Despite gas prices being lower than they were this time last year, car travel will still be short of 2019 levels by about 500,000 people.
The largest growth is on buses and trains, which are the transportation mode of choice for 1.85 million people — a year-over-year increase of 20.6 percent.
"This is expected to be the third busiest Memorial Day weekend since 2000, when AAA started tracking holiday travel," said Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel. "More Americans are planning trips and booking them earlier, despite inflation. This summer travel season could be one for the record books, especially at airports."
AAA booking data shows a 40 percent increase in airfare to the most popular cities. Some of the top domestic destinations this holiday weekend are Orlando, New York City and Las Vegas, as well as port cities in Florida and Alaska. International hotspots include Rome, Paris, Dublin, London, Barcelona and Athens.