LAX among many U.S. airports bracing for busy Memorial Day weekend
This Memorial Day travel weekend is expected to be busier than normal for airports across the country, and LAX is predicted to be among the most crowded.
According to online travel agency Hopper’s 2024 Memorial Day Outlook, over 20 million people will depart from U.S. airports between the Thursday before Memorial Day and the following Tuesday, which is 6.6% more passengers for that period of time than last year.
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Airlines have prepared for the holiday weekend rush by adding 1 million seats to domestic routes and 300,000 to international flights, Hopper data indicated. The travel service expects LAX to be the fifth-busiest airport in the United States on Memorial Day weekend.
AAA data supported that prediction, estimating that nearly 44 million travelers will leave their homes for the “unofficial start of summer,” which ranks as the second-most since AAA began tracking in 2000.
The busiest airports in America for the 2024 Memorial Day weekend, according to Hopper projections, are:
Rank | Airport | Scheduled departing seats | Busiest time to depart |
1. | Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Int’l Airport (ATL) | 1,056,238 | 8am-12pm |
2. | Dallas Fort Worth Int’l Airport (DFW) | 873,151 | 4pm-8pm |
3. | Denver Int’l Airport (DEN) | 844,901 | 8am-12pm |
4. | Chicago O’Hare Int’l Airport (ORD) | 801,267 | 4pm-8pm |
5. | Los Angeles Int’l Airport (LAX) | 771,927 | 8am-12pm |
6. | John F. Kennedy Int’l Airport (JFK) | 645,899 | 4pm-8pm |
7. | Charlotte Int’l Airport (CLT) | 603,976 | 8am-12pm |
8. | Harry Reid Int’l Airport (LAS) | 589,594 | 8am-12pm |
9. | Orlando Int’l Airport (MCO) | 550,539 | 8am-12pm |
10. | Seattle Int’l Airport (SEA) | 536,866 | 8am-12pm |
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KTLA 5’s Eric Spillman was on the ground at a relatively quiet LAX on Wednesday morning, interviewing people trying to avoid long lines on the busiest travel days.
Among the interviewees were a family of five from Temecula heading to Hawaii and an Australian man gearing up for the 2024 Race Across America, a bicycle race that begins in Oceanside on June 11 and ends in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
“You’re pretty much riding 22 hours a day…about 350 miles per day… and you maybe get about an hour of sleep,” cyclist Allan Jefferson, 58, told Spillman. “You’ve got 12 days [to complete the race] and last time I did it in just under 10, so I’m hoping [to finish] in nine days or hopefully eight.”
Fortunately for Spillman, Jefferson did not invite him on the over 3,000-mile bike trip, but unfortunately, the Temecula family did not have an extra ticket for him to come with them to Hawaii.
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