AAA projects a record 72 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more during the nine-day Independence Day holiday period — from June 28 to July 6 — with new highs expected for both drivers and air travelers as summer travel reaches peak season.

The auto club forecasts nearly 62 million people will drive over the Fourth of July weekend, representing an increase of 1.3 million from last year. Air travel is expected to rise more than 1% over last year’s record numbers.

“The top 10 heaviest travel days in TSA history have all happened within the past year, and we expect to see more heavy volumes this summer,” said Kristie Jordan Smith, a Transportation Security Administration official at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

How technology at airports is reducing wait times

The Independence Day travel period is expected to be the summer’s busiest travel stretch.

Airport officials are implementing new technology to reduce wait times. At DFW, customs officials report wait times are down 25% thanks to enhanced passenger processing technology that uses facial recognition, now operational at nine airports nationwide.

CBP will soon test a program allowing customs to review X-ray images of checked bags from London flights, eliminating the need for connecting passengers to clear security twice in Dallas.

“This program streamlines and improves the travel experience for our customers, saving them time and reducing the complexity of clearing security while continuing to maintain the highest security standards,” said Jim Moses, Senior Vice President DFW Hub Operations at American Airlines. DFW is the airline’s largest hub.

AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said travel demand reflects both practical and emotional factors.

“We’re seeing travel in record numbers because travel isn’t just an economic and practical decision, it’s also an emotional decision,” Diaz said. “People don’t have to spend a lot of money when they go on these trips, but people want to get away and not be home.”

According to Priceline, top summer destinations include Las Vegas, Orlando, Tokyo and London.

The prediction feels somewhat optimistic given recent trends. But travelers continue to benefit from lower gas prices and have mostly continued to spend despite economic uncertainty.

Americans are shrugging off economic jitters for the Fourth of July holiday: AAA projects that 72.2 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home between June 28 and July 6.

If the forecast is correct, travel for the holiday would eclipse previous records set in 2019, before the pandemic, and 2023, during the post-Covid travel surge.

But the rosy prediction hinges on gas prices staying near four-year lows and Middle East tensions not spiraling into broader conflict.

Drivers are currently paying about 40 cents less per gallon than last summer, AAA said, with gas prices at their lowest since 2021. That’s providing crucial relief for the 61.6 million Americans expected to ddrive, representing 85% of all holiday travelers.

Uncertainties Ahead

The prediction feels somewhat optimistic given recent trends. One wild card is the Israel-Iran war, which risks increasing oil prices and is causing gasoline prices to spike.

Recent hotel performance trends also suggest weakness. Overall, U.S. revenue per available room was down 1.8% for the week ending June 14, according to CoStar’s STR.

“The weekend results were not ‘soft’ to us but instead ‘bad,’ especially for limited-service chain scales, which averaged -3.3% year-over-year revenue per available room,” said Truist analysts Patrick Scholes and Gregory Miller.

Truist said the results reflected “the combination of volatility in consumer and business confidence, government segment cutbacks, and diminished inbound international travel. And to these headwinds, we now add student loan debt repayments—likely impacting limited-service hotels.”

Otherwise, a favorable calendar date might enable this year’s holiday to break travel records. Because it falls on a Friday, more travelers may take the entire week off.

AAA’s Independence Day forecast includes two weekends instead of one to “better reflect the flow of holiday travelers.”

Top Independence Day Destinations

Here are the top five U.S. destinations for the Independence Day holiday period based on travel bookings made through AAA:

Orlando, FL

Seattle, WA

New York, NY

Anchorage, AK

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Friday marks the official start of summer and the start of one of the busiest travel seasons of the year.With gas prices still the lowest they’ve been since 2021, AAA expects a record number of people to hit the road over the Fourth of July holiday period.“Following Memorial Day’s record forecast, AAA is seeing strong demand for road trips and air travel over Independence Day week,” said vice president of AAA Travel Stacey Barber. “With the holiday falling on a Friday, travelers have the option of making it a long weekend or taking the entire week to make memories with family and friends.” It runs from Saturday, June 28 to Sunday, July 6.During that period, AAA predicts nearly 62 million Americans will take a trip by car.People traveling by air for the holiday could also set a new record. Nearly six million travelers are expected to fly to their destinations.As for other options, AAA says nearly five million people will travel by bus, train, or take a cruise over the July Fourth holiday.

Friday marks the official start of summer and the start of one of the busiest travel seasons of the year.

With gas prices still the lowest they’ve been since 2021, AAA expects a record number of people to hit the road over the Fourth of July holiday period.

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“Following Memorial Day’s record forecast, AAA is seeing strong demand for road trips and air travel over Independence Day week,” said vice president of AAA Travel Stacey Barber. “With the holiday falling on a Friday, travelers have the option of making it a long weekend or taking the entire week to make memories with family and friends.”

It runs from Saturday, June 28 to Sunday, July 6.

During that period, AAA predicts nearly 62 million Americans will take a trip by car.

People traveling by air for the holiday could also set a new record. Nearly six million travelers are expected to fly to their destinations.

As for other options, AAA says nearly five million people will travel by bus, train, or take a cruise over the July Fourth holiday.

After reports that domestic demand and consumer confidence was on the decline, airlines are gearing up for what might be one of their busiest summers yet.

The airline industry is expecting another record-breaking Memorial Day weekend and summer, an indication that demand could be ticking back up.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that the peak for Memorial Day weekend flights was Thursday, with nearly 54,000 flights that day. The agency added that it expects flight numbers to steadily grow this summer and reach a peak at the end of July.

American Airlines said it will operate 38,000 flights during Memorial Day weekend, with the busiest days being Thursday and Friday.

The Fort Worth-based airline is expanding its summer schedule by 5% and is debuting new routes to Athens, Madrid, Milan, and Rome. The most popular destinations for American customers are London, Orlando, and Boston, the company said.

United Airlines said it expects to fly 3.8 million people for Memorial Day weekend, around 300,000 more than last year.

Around 50 million people are expected to fly United this summer, an increase of about 3 million compared to last year, the Chicago-based carrier said.

For the upcoming long weekend, United said it will operate over 4,600 flights daily and Friday will be its busiest day, with 550,000 passengers expected to travel.

United said its most popular international destinations for Memorial Day weekend include Cancun, London, and Frankfurt. Customers flying to Frankfurt connect with Lufthansa to travel to other European cities through the Star Alliance network, the carrier said.

The top domestic destinations for United are Orlando, Las Vegas, Boston, and San Diego.

Will Economic Uncertainty No Longer Impact Airlines?

The sunny summer forecast comes after airlines reported a tepid outlook for the year due to economic uncertainty brought on by tariffs, declining consumer confidence and a sinking stock market.

Multiple airlines, including Delta, American, Southwest, and Alaska, pulled their 2025 guidance and cut their first quarter forecasts.

However, international and premium travel has been a bright spot for the industry. United chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella said during an earnings call April 16 that high demand for international travel had offset softness in domestic travel.

Domestic airfares had also started to fall as a result of softer demand. Airlines had too many domestic seats but are now paring back capacity to better match with demand.

However, domestic airfares were up for Memorial Day weekend, indicating that demand was increasing, according to a May 5 report from Deutsche Bank.

What am I looking at? The performance of airline sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets including network carriers, low-cost carriers, and other related companies. The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more airlines sector financial performance. Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Memorial Day travelers are hitting the roads and taking to the skies to get to their holiday weekend destination.

AAA said it “projects a record-setting more than 45.1 million Americans will travel 50 miles or farther from home this weekend.”

For those whose idea of a road trip is to the airport, they could be joining 3.41 million passengers nationwide, which AAA said is nearly 2% higher than last year.

Speaking of airports, Memorial Day week marks the start of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport’s “100 Days of Summer.”

CLE said it expects more than 3.3 million passengers through the busy summer travel season, which goes through Labor Day.

This is about the same number that passed through “Northeast Ohio’s Gateway to the World” through last summer.

That’s more than 30% of the passengers Ohio’s Busiest Airport serves annually.

AAA East Central, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) came together to highlight the expected increase in travel on Thursday.

Here are some of the tips they shared so you are ready to drive and fly.

Be REAL ID ready!

“The Airport also encourages anyone flying this summer to check their driver’s license to ensure they are Real ID ready,” CLE said. “Enforcement of the Real ID requirements is already in place and failure to secure a Real ID could lead to you missing your flight.”

TSA Regional Spokesperson Jessica Mayle said they are looking at 18 million passengers nationwide just four weeks in to the REAL ID rollout, which has gone “really smoothly” so far.

While TSA has not seen any impact on wait time or operations nationwide due to the REAL ID rollout, “but it’s going to be a busy weekend. We want people to give themselves plenty of time. Bringing ID is an essential first step to your journey,” Mayle stated.

Give yourself plenty of travel time

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport said it expects 128,000 passengers to go through their terminal this Friday-through Monday.

A travel trend going viral on social media has people showing up to the airport just 15 minutes before boarding begins

But if you actually want to get on the flight you bought a ticket for this holiday weekend, AAA’s Jim Garrity says you’ll need at least eight times longer than that!

Arrive at least two hours before a domestic flight begins boarding, and three hours before you international flight boards.

This allows time to get through traffic, find parking, checking in, going through security, and dealing time with any inclement weather.

Make Ohio roads safer

Getting through airport security and traffic in the terminal isn’t the only reason you need to give yourself extra time for.

Having so many drivers on the road during a holiday weekend can cause a headache on the highway with slow speeds.

But drivers often in a rush to get to their destination, or sometimes impaired after leaving unofficial start to summer celebrations, can create dangerous and deadly conditions.

ODOT’s Amanda McFarland said there were 26 people killed in 22 fatal crashes within the four days of last year’s Memorial Day weekend.

Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers will increase patrol with their eye on seat belt violations, distracted or impaired driving, and speeding.

Dial #677 to report any drug or dangerous driving activity.

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