Airports, Airlines, Aviation

Labor Day Travel Wrap 2016


Today’s Labor Day travel wrap is brought to you by the letter S and the number 5, as in September 5th, 2016 (Labor Day, for those of you outside North America). Hopefully you got to do something as awesome as I did (I flew from DEN to LAX for a sailing expedition).

Sailing through Labor Day travel
Sailing through Labor Day travel

Expectations were high for record setting Labor Day travel numbers this year. In case you didn’t know, Labor Day is the 5th most-traveled holiday weekend in the US. And, according to Travel and Leisure, 7.4% of travelers will be reaching their destination (predominantly beach oriented) by air.

Forecasted Labor Day travel passengers

The forecast predicted 2.2 million airplane passenger would travel during the Labor Day travel weekend. This number would be reflect a 4% increase from 2015 according to Airlines for America. Airlines responded in suit by adding approximately 100,000 additional seats of capacity. Friday was projected to be the busiest day.

Where are they going?

Data from AAA suggested Nassau, Bahamas is the #1 spot, followed by San Juan, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

One of the reasons that Labor Day travel was expected to increase is due to falling oil prices and airline fare wares driving airfares lower. Wondering where you might travel to consider these trend will only continue? Check out this infographic from Cheapflights.com for some global ideas.

Cheap Labor Day Travel Airport (Cheapflights.com)
Cheap Labor Day Travel Airport (Cheapflights.com)

I personally traveled through LAX on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. LAX seemed to do just fine through the additional passenger load. LAX officials predicted 817,000 passengers to pass through the airport (year on year increase of 7%), with Friday again being the busiest day (223,000 people predicted), followed by Monday. Also – #traveltip alert – if you can avoid flying back on Monday, an extra day or two can save you money and wait-time. This is always the case over a major holiday weekend. I booked a round-trip flight on Spirit for around $50.

Wherever your Labor Day travel took you, tripchi sure hopes it was worth it!

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