How to Avoid Traffic Jams and Airport Crowds This Labor Day Weekend

Jessica Puckett
·6 min read

Naomi Rahim/Getty

Summer travel 2024, with its record-breaking crowds, is set to reach a fever pitch over Labor Day Weekend. The busiest summer season in recent history is set to end with a bang, as a historic number of people are expected to take to the roads and skies.

According to the latest predictions from AAA, domestic travel over the Labor Day weekend period—from Thursday, August 29 through Monday, September 2—is up 9% compared to last year. For its part, the TSA expects to screen 8.5% more airline passengers than over Labor Day 2023, making the upcoming long weekend a fitting end of the summer for the security agency, which has already inked its top 10 busiest travel days ever since May 2024.

The most popular destination is expected to be Seattle, according to AAA, with many tourists using the city as a launch pad for Alaska cruises, the organization says. Labor Day trips to Seattle are up 30% year over year, AAA says, and Anchorage and Juneau are also among the top 10 destinations for the long weekend. Other busy destinations will be Orlando, New York, Boston, Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, and San Francisco.

But planning a getaway for the long weekend doesn’t mean resigning yourself to traffic jams and logistical headaches. Here’s how to navigate the crowds, whether you plan to travel by plane or car.

Road trips

To avoid Labor Day traffic, drivers should plan to get an early start when heading out of town on Thursday and Friday: The afternoon and evening hours on those days are expected to be among the most congested all weekend. “Drivers should expect the most severe traffic jams before the holiday weekend as commuters mix with travelers,” Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at travel data firm Inrix, said in a statement.

Avoid driving from 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, which are among the worst times to depart, according to AAA’s report. Travel times during those windows can be up to 40% longer than normal on popular routes, like between New York and the Jersey Shore, Inrix’s data shows. Instead, the best times to hit the road will be anytime before 11 a.m. on Thursday and before noon on Friday.

For return journeys home, road-trippers should also aim to hit the road as early as possible on Sunday and Monday—anytime before noon or before 10 a.m., respectively, should result in less congested highways. Avoid afternoon and evening travel on those days as well. The most traffic-laden hours are expected to be 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday.

If you’re traveling to or from a major city, it could be worth looking at the specific Labor Day traffic report for those metro areas. Inrix has compiled a list of the peak congestion times for 16 major cities, and it could provide some helpful insights. For instance, Boston’s Pilgrim Highway South toward Hyannis on Cape Cod will be most congested Thursday at 1:45pm, making travel times 24% longer, while departing Detroit for Grand Rapids at that same time could add 20% more time to your trip.

Pishue advises to always monitor traffic apps, local news stations, and state 511 hotlines and websites for the most up-to-date information on highway congestion.

Air travel

It’s not just highways that will be congested: Airports across the country will also be thronging with crowds. In fact, TSA predicts that this holiday weekend will be its busiest Labor Day on record, with the agency expecting to screen more than 17 million people from August 29 through September 4.

The busiest day for air travel is predicted to be Friday August 30, when TSA estimates it will screen a whopping 2.86 million people across all US airports. Among the top 10 busiest airports will be major hubs like Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, New York JFK, Seattle, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and San Francisco, according to data from travel booking site Hopper. The site’s report says that Atlanta is expected to see more than 1 million seats depart over the course of the seven days surrounding the holiday, while O’Hare and DFW will see nearly 1 million seats each as well. Travelers will see the largest crowds at most airports during the day, Hopper says, with congestion cresting at international hubs—such as New York JFK and O’Hare—later at night.

Airlines are making preparations to handle the massive influx of fliers. “We’re flying larger planes to more places, giving more travelers the opportunity to enjoy a premium onboard experience,” Andrew Nocella, chief commercial officer of United Airlines, said in an emailed statement. United expects to carry about 2.9 million people during the Labor Day stretch. The carrier will fly about half a million people a day on both Thursday and Friday alone. It will operate more than 4,400 flights per day, which is an average of three take-offs every minute.

To give yourself plenty of time to navigate the crowds, remember the old rule of thumb to arrive at the airport at least two hours before take-off for domestic flights and three hours ahead for international flights.

If you have TSA PreCheck, make sure you’ve added your Known Traveler Number to your airline reservation so it shows up on your boarding pass and you’re allowed into the expedited line. (If you forgot to do this during booking, call your airline before check-in. After check-in, you can have it added at the airline’s ticket desk just before security.) If you’re not a PreCheck member, check if your airport is one of the eight US facilities or 12 international airports that allows fliers to reserve a specific time to pass through security for free. Because when it comes to congested holiday weekend travel, a little planning can go a long way.

Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler

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