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Traveling during Labor Day: Airlines are busy and the roads are more hazardous
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Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer as people zip up their suitcases for one last vacation and as roads and airports prepare for one last rush of summer traffic.
“Not everyone travels for Labor Day — not compared to July Fourth or Thanksgiving. Those are the most popular ones,” said Aixa Diaz, a spokesperson for AAA. “But certainly Labor Day offers people a way to get away for a final weekend of the summer. You’ve got people who are either taking the three-day weekend or perhaps taking off the whole week before Labor Day.”
AAA expects domestic travel over Labor Day weekend to jump 9% compared with last year as the cost to travel domestically is down 2%.
Flying during Labor Day
Albuquerque International Sunport officials expect its number of travelers to peak from previous years, with some 115,000 passengers expected to make their way through the airport. The count includes travelers from Wednesday through next Tuesday.
Diana López Rabadán, a spokeswoman for the Sunport, said only Labor Day is expected to be a busier day of travel than Friday. She said the average travel day will see some 16,000 passengers.
The estimate for this year will likely surpass travel numbers for recent years “due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” López Rabadán said. For instance, in 2020, 35,000 travelers made their way through the Sunport during the holiday period, while in 2021 that number was 81,000. In 2022, the number was 100,000, she said, though she didn’t provide a figure for 2023.
She said Sunport officials recommend that passengers arrive two hours before departure to “allow extra time for parking and potentially longer security wait times.”
“Our parking lots have been at or near capacity,” López Rabadán said, “so travelers should be prepared to park at one of the offsite lots if necessary.”
She said while Labor Day will see a larger number of travelers than non-holiday times, “traditionally, here at the Sunport, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Balloon Fiesta are the busiest times of the year.”
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Overall, TSA expects record-breaking travel this Labor Day, with an expected 17 million people flying between Thursday and the following Wednesday and 2.86 million screenings expected Friday.
A large portion of those 17 million flyers are expected to stay in the country during Labor Day weekend with domestic travel bookings up 9% compared to last year. International flight bookings decreased 4% this year.
Typically, flight prices decrease around this time of year, and passengers can expect prices to be 26% cheaper than the beginning of the summer.
“Now we’re falling into that traditional fall season when demand slumps, and you’re also seeing that in airfares,” said Steve Hafner, CEO of the travel metasearch site Kayak. “Airfares are down from the summer about 26% already, and they’re down even from the previous fall, about 4%.”
Weather may affect plane takeoffs and arrivals in New Mexico but rain chances appear slight through the weekend.
Driving during Labor Day
New Mexico, meanwhile, is the fourth most-dangerous state to drive in during Labor Day, according to a report using fatal crash data from 2013 to 2022 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Crashes increase 32% in New Mexico during Labor Day weekend, with an average of 38 fatal car crashes occurring on or around Labor Day. Of the 38 fatal crashes, roughly 12 each year are blamed on drunken driving.
Speeding is also a concern during the holidays. Data from Arity shows that driving over 80 mph increases 83% and speeds above 100 mph increase 50%.
The company reports that distracted driving has decreased the last three years.
In comparison to 2023, gas prices nationally are down 42 cents a gallon. New Mexicans can expect to pay an average of $3.27 per gallon in gas, with the national average at $3.36, according to AAA reports. Residents in Harding County (Roy and Mosquero) can expect to see the highest gas prices in New Mexico with an average of $3.87 per gallon. Bernalillo and Santa Fe travelers can expect prices between $3.31 and $3.38.
In Albuquerque, a gallon of gas was $3.83 at the same time last year.
“While fluctuations remain possible due to holiday travel demand, fuel prices are expected to start on a downward trend as we get into September,” said Daniel Armbruster, another spokesperson for AAA.
