Houstonians are ready for the summer travel, or at least we’d like to be!
SEE ALSO: 2024 travel tips if you’re planning an adventure!
Highways and airports are likely to be jammed the next few days as Americans head out for Memorial Day Weekend getaways and so will the return home. In Houston, the number of people passing through is going to surpass previous years
AAA predicts this will be the busiest start-of-summer weekend in nearly 20 years, with 43.8 million people expected to travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday. The Transportation Security Administration says up to 3 million might pass through airport checkpoints on Friday alone.
And that is just a sample of what is to come. U.S. airlines expect to carry a record number of passengers this summer. Their trade group estimates that 271 million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31, breaking the record of 255 million set – you guessed it – last summer.
MORE: Remember last year’s Memorial Day travel jams? Chances are they will be much worse this year
And there’s a reason behind the increase. The bottom line is airlines keep adding flights and destinations. KPRC 2 reporter T.J. Parker spoke with some people getting a head start on their holiday travels Thursday morning and it seems like everyone at Hobby Airport thought they’d be beating the crowd.
“It’s been more crowded,” Patricia Martin said. “I noticed everybody has the same thing on their mind is getting here early and so I was up late packing just to make sure I had everything.”
“You just pack a lot of patience and know that everyone is trying to get to the same place and get to a destination and you just have to have a lot of patience,” another traveler, Beth Turner said.
Here are some tips if you’re flying this weekend:
- Reserve parking ahead of time; more passengers mean fewer places to park.
- There’s also ongoing construction at Bush Airport- although some of it will be paused for the holiday, so they’re asking people to arrive early by at least three hours.
- Peak travel hours are between 4 and 9 p.m.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.