1.3 million North Carolinians expected to travel this Memorial Day weekend

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolinians are going to be traveling in record numbers this Memorial Day weekend.

AAA predicts more than 1.3 million North Carolinians will travel 50 miles or more. That’s the highest number of holiday travelers since AAA began keeping their eye on these numbers in 2000.

Travelers have a multitude of options for getting where they’re wanting to go. Road trips are expected to set a record in North Carolina and nationwide, with nearly 1.5 million more Americans on the road than last year. Air travel is also expected to be up.

This will be the most crowded Memorial Day weekend at airports since 2005, according to AAA. Director of Public Affairs with AAA, Tiffany Wright, said air travel has rebounded back after the pandemic.

She said there’s a strong interest in flying, both domestically and abroad. Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) said they expect an 8% increase in travelers over last year; and expectations at Charlotte Douglas Airport (CLT) are 20% more travelers.

Wright added if you are flying this weekend, you should give yourself more time than you usually do to get yourself to the airport.

“I would say maybe get to the airport two and a half hours early for domestic, three and half for international,” Wright said. “I’m just saying that because you really want to give yourself enough time to get though security when you know those lines are going to be very long.”

Spectrum News 1 also spoke with travelers to get their take on how this weekend is going so far and how they prepared for the chaos they might see at the airports.

“Believe [it] or not just before we landed, I just put my head back because of the chaos of the traveling, and I just began to thank God that we didn’t have any problems, it was a straight flight for us,” Jacqueline Williams, a holiday traveler, said.

“Traffic was good, clean, smooth, no problems, little rain here and there, spotty rain, but other than that it was a good traffic drive too,” Alexander Williams, another traveler, said.

“Carry-on bag only, so I didn’t have to worry about missing my layover, and then also traveling red eyes, may be a little less popular, I got on a flight at midnight out of Denver, so kind of going at a time that people don’t want to go and then landing early here,” Justin Munro, a Memorial Day weekend traveler, said.