Big Labor Day weekend to test battered travel industry

Labor Day is giving travelers and airlines one last trial to end a summer that most would prefer to forget.

Nearly 12.7 million passengers are expected to travel through the nation’s airports between Thursday and Monday for Labor Day weekend, according to travel website Hopper. Millions more will hit the roads to travel to beaches, lakes and campgrounds.

DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field could be among the most difficult places to navigate for passengers. DFW Airport expects to host over 501,000 departing passengers from Thursday to Monday, making it the fourth-busiest airport in the country this weekend.

Love Field, although it is expecting just 136,436 passengers, has had the third-highest rate of delays in the country between Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, according to Hopper, with about 37% of all flights delayed. To add to that, 3.9% of all flights at DFW Airport and 2.8% at Love Field were canceled in the first half of the month, sending thousands of travelers scrambling.

Choosing the alternative and driving will provide little relief, even though gas prices have receded from summertime records. A gallon of regular unleaded gas was selling Tuesday for $3.36 in Texas — 20% higher than a year ago, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge. Airfares are up 20% over 2019, and hotels are selling for $189 a night on average, the highest in history for Labor Day weekend, Hopper said.

Despite the hassle of flying this summer and higher prices for airfare and fuel, people are still eager to travel heading into Labor Day, said Eric Jones, co-founder of The Vacationer blog.

“Demand is going to remain high,” Jones said. “There is still so much pent-up demand from COVID.”

The Vacationer’s surveys showed that about 53% of Americans plan to travel over Labor Day weekend, whether they drive to a nearby destination or head south for a few days in Cancun.

But even though people are traveling, they are having to make choices about what they do when they get there.

The worst inflation in nearly 40 years has pushed the prices for everything higher led by fuel but also by a nationwide increase in wages that is making it more expensive to get a room, buy a meal at a restaurant or visit a water park.

“Inflation and gas prices are weighing people down, but it’s not stopping them from traveling,” Jones said.

AAA Texas said two-thirds of travelers cut back on travel spending this summer to save money, including 80% of people 18 to 34 years old. Falling gas prices could encourage people to get in the car and drive, said Daniel Armbruster, a spokesman with the automobile club.

“We could see a very busy Labor Day weekend, especially on the roads,” Armbruster said. “When gas prices fall, that usually gets people out.”

Even once passengers get to their destinations, they are facing higher costs when they get there. The cost of the average short-term rental unit, such as an Airbnb, is up about 30% since 2019 and 9.1% in the last year, said Madeleine Parkin, a spokeswoman for data tracker AirDNA.

“The strongest growth is in small cities and rural areas where supply has grown and there is relatively little competition with hotels,” she said.

The unofficial last hurrah of summer comes as passengers and regulators are reaching a breaking point, complaints soar and airlines continue to struggle to get planes to their destinations on time, if they get them there at all. The Department of Transportation’s latest data for June showed that airline complaints are up 270% compared to 2019 and nearly every airline is canceling and delaying a higher percentage of flights.

Airlines have trimmed schedules to help create more flight stability, but this summer there have also been issues with weather, problems with air traffic control and a shortage of pilots forcing cuts to regional airlines.

“It’s not just an airline problem, it’s an industry problem,” said Roy Cohen, CEO of travel data and scheduling company Fetcherr. “You can’t separate the airlines from the airports and the pilots.”

Airlines and airports are still trying to put operations back together while facing inflation, supply chain issues, staffing shortages and other economic challenges that the rest of the country is facing, Cohen said. After massive cancellations over the last year, executives have tried to revamp crew and network scheduling software, baggage systems and other technologies involved in running a complex airline operation, Cohen said.

Labor Day weekend also could be a critical test for the travel industry as fall and the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach.

“I can tell you that airlines understand the problem and they are working to fix the problems like they never have in their life,” Cohen said. “But it’s a lot of work and it may take 24 months or more to get some real solutions.”

» What you need to know if your flight gets delayed or canceled.