Record-breaking summer travel season peaks with help from cheaper gas and airfare

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Airports and roads were packed with travelers Friday as what’s already been a record-breaking summer travel season ends with the Labor Day holiday.

AAA is calling for a 9% jump in holiday travel over last year helped by cheaper gasoline and airline ticket prices.

Charleston’s Yeager Airport at mirrored the bigger travel hubs, packed with Labor Day holiday flyers. The TSA expects to screen more than 17 million people over the long weekend

Domestic airline ticket prices are down about 5% from last year’s holiday.

Ashley Craig, who was traveling from Tennessee to West Virginia, told Eyewitness News Charlotte was exceptionally busy.

“It was very crowded,” she said. “Very tight layovers for a whole bunch of people on my flight from Memphis but a lot of runners.”

Atlanta was hopping too and some planes had more passenger than they could hold.

“They overbooked in Atlanta for the flight down here. They were trying to entice people to go on a later flight. That’s how busy they were,” Aleen Eller, who was traveling from Florida to West Virginia, told Eyewitness News.

Drivers are getting a break on gasoline with West Virginia at $3.28 per gallon or better, cheaper than the nationwide average which was $3.35 cents per gallon Friday, compared to $3.83 a year ago.

Traffic was heavy on the West Virginia Turnpike, especially at the southbound toll booths in Kanawha County where the turnpike carries both Interstate 77 and Interstate 64.

Experts advise travelers returning home Sunday and on Labor Day to leave as early as possible to avoid afternoon travel delays.