Labor Day travel expected to approach pre-pandemic levels

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Travel experts say that most Americans will be coming back from their holiday weekends on Monday. Millions of Americans are expected to fly or drive home this Labor Day. Luckily for travelers, we aren’t seeing too many delays in the central Kentucky area.

Our crew spoke with drivers Monday morning who made it sound like everything is running nice and easy, but that might not be the case a little later on in the day. AAA said the busiest time for travel this Labor Day is going to be in the afternoon.

The travel agency said millions of Americans are going to be out on the roads despite high gas prices and inflation.

“I always think about that with gas. Like when gas went up, what are we going to do, not buy gas? It is what it is. Things cost money,” traveler Cameron Myers said. “You shorten up where you can, but it’s Labor Day and we want to go on vacation. Am I not going to be on vacation and be mad that things are expensive?”

The national average for a gallon of gas is up 54 cents this Labor Day weekend from last year.

“Of course it’s up 54 cents from this time last year, but I’m sure it was probably up even more from the year before, but where I’m from it was actually down,” traveler Tracy Gilbert said.

At the airport, national travel agencies expect more than 13 million Americans to fly this holiday weekend, and this morning we saw a big rush of people out at Blue Grass Airport. We expect to see more activity with flights landing and leaving later this afternoon.

We are expecting some more rain as the day goes on, which could be a bad mixture with the holiday traffic, so make sure if you’re heading back that you take things slow and get where you’re going safely.

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