More people will travel for the Fourth of July holiday weekend than last year, despite high gasoline prices and air travel issues, travel club AAA said this week.
AAA predicts 47.9 million people will travel 50 miles or more away from home between Thursday and Monday, July 4.
Fourth of July travel volumes this weekend are expected to be 3.7% higher than last year. This will bring travel volumes nearly to the level of those seen in 2019.
"The volume of travelers we expect to see over Independence Day is a definite sign that summer travel is kicking into high gear," AAA Travel Senior Vice President Paula Twidale said in a recent AAA news release.
In the region tracked by AAA that includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, 4.2 million people are expected to travel by car and 441,000 people are expected to travel by air this weekend.
"Earlier this year, we started seeing the demand for travel increase and it's not tapering off. People are ready for a break and despite things costing more, they are finding ways to still take that much needed vacation," Twidale said.
Car travel during the upcoming holiday weekend is expected to set a record despite historically high gas prices with 42 million people in the U.S. expected to travel by car this weekend, AAA predicts.
Drivers can expect to see some relief at the pump this weekend.
The average price for a gallon of gas in Arkansas on Thursday was $4.41 per gallon, which is 45 cents below the national average. The average price for gas in Arkansas dropped by about 8 cents per gallon from last week, leaving Arkansas the fifth least expensive state to buy gas.
"We are seeing wholesale prices trickle down," said Michael Fox, executive director of the Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers of America. "We're not seeing increases like we were."
The slight but perceptible price drop is in response to falling demand as motorists change their habits and drive less. In the week that ended June 17, the U.S. Energy Information Administration's measure of implied demand -- products supplied to consumers -- declined by about 700,000 barrels a day from the week of June 3, to about 8.5 million barrels a day.
Air travel in the United States is almost back to pre-pandemic levels and those choosing to travel by air should expect some delays, experts said. Flight delays and cancellations have been reported because of a shortage of pilots and staff among airlines and at air traffic control centers.
Since Saturday, an average of nearly 2.3 million people a day have gone through airport checkpoints -- down just 8% from the same days in 2019. If that trend continues through weekend, records will be set for flying in the pandemic era.
Airlines may not have enough planes and flights to carry all of them, especially if there are cancellations related to weather, crew shortages or any other reason.
Airlines have been caught short-staffed as they try to hire thousands of workers, including pilots, to replace those who they encouraged to quit when the pandemic caused air travel to plummet.
Many of them, including Delta, Southwest and JetBlue, have trimmed summer schedules to reduce stress on their operations. They are using larger planes on average to carry more passengers with the same number of pilots. Those steps haven't been enough so far this summer.
"Airlines are learning the hard way that there is a severe price for over-optimism," said Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation expert at DePaul University. "They are on the edge of a cliff this holiday."
On the Fourth of July weekend last year, 23,179 people passed through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock and 14,559 passed through Northwest Arkansas National Airport in Highfill from June 30 to July 6.
The TSA said it expects to see a 27% increase in the number of travelers who will depart from the Little Rock airport, as well as a 40% increase in the number of travelers who will depart from the Northwest Arkansas airport on the Fourth of July weekend this year, TSA spokesperson Patricia Mancha said.
Nearly 4,000 people passed through Clinton National checkpoints and 2,314 passed through Northwest Arkansas airport checkpoints on July 1, 2021, the heaviest traffic days for both airports last year.
"Friday, July 1 will be our busiest day of the holiday weekend," Clinton National spokesperson Shane Carter said. "We ask that passengers arrive two hours before their departure time to allow for parking, the airline ticket counter and security screening. Keep in mind that airlines start boarding 30 minutes before departure."
Delta Air Lines Inc.'s chief executive officer apologized Thursday to customers for an "unacceptable" level of canceled and delayed flights, an unusual step that reflects mounting frustration among waylaid summer travelers.
Delta is adding extra boarding time for flights, building in more of a buffer in crew schedules to mitigate disruptions and using white collar salaried workers to help speed customers through airports, Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said in a letter to its SkyMiles frequent flyer program members Thursday.
"We've spent years establishing Delta as the industry leader in reliability, and though the majority of our flights continue to operate on time, this level of disruption and uncertainty is unacceptable," Bastian said.
Motorists in Arkansas will have to deal with several construction projects this weekend that could cause bottlenecks.
There is a closure eastbound on Interstate 440 near Little Rock, in which the inside and middle lanes are closed for nearly 2 miles as crews place a protective sealant on the surface of the highway. There is also a closure southbound on Interstate 530 for less than a mile for an emergency road repair.
There are also highway lane closures reported in Sebastian, Chicot and Lawrence counties, which may cause delays.
In the Little Rock area, construction projects along Interstate 30 and U.S. 70 may cause traffic bottlenecks during the holiday weekend.
Information for this article was contributed by Cristina LaRue of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, David Koenig of The Associated Press, Stephen Singer of the Hartford Courant and Mary Schlangenstein of Bloomberg News.
Traffic moves along Interstate 30 in the middle of 30 Crossing construction work on Thursday afternoon near downtown Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)
Matt Ballard (from left) and Jenn Williams of Lowell return Thursday from traveling with children Lincoln Ballard, 4, and Elena Ballard, 10 months, at the Northwest Arkansas National Airport in Highfill. Visit nwaonline.com/220701Daily/ for today’s photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Charlie Kaijo)
Asha Mevlana of New York waits Thursday at her seat as her flight prepares to take off at the Northwest Arkansas National Airport in Highfill. Visit nwaonline.com/220701Daily/ for today’s photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Charlie Kaijo)