On the road and in the skies, Memorial Day Weekend brings major boost in travel

Oakland - After more than a year cooped up at home and laying low, on Friday thousands of Bay Area residents, a good portion vaccinated and vacation-ready, took to the skies.

The Port of Oakland estimates more than 30,000 passengers came through Oakland International Airport on Friday and projects 130,000 people will travel through the airport over the Wednesday through Sunday Memorial Day holiday.

"We expect this weekend to be the busiest we’ve experienced this year," said Bryant L. Francis, Port of Oakland Director of Aviation. "We ask that travelers arrive at the airport early, wear a mask as required, and travel responsibly as we head into a busy summer here at OAK," Francis said.

At San Francisco International Airport, 33,000 passengers passed through airport security Thursday and the airport expects roughly 35,000-38,000 passengers per day during the summer travel season.

"While such levels are more than 50% below pre-pandemic passenger levels, SFO is nonetheless experiencing the longest sustained period of passenger growth since the pandemic began," Doug Yakel, public information officer at SFO, said.

At airports across the country Thursday, Transportation Security Administration agents screened 1,854,534 people, significantly more than the 321,776 people screened a year ago.

"We're seeing airplanes that are full and airports that are full, and we think it's a great sign of the improvement the country is making, case counts are down, vaccines are up, and confidence is growing to travel again," Darby Lajoye, executive assistant administrator for security operations at the TSA said.

Far more people will be driving to their holiday getaway. AAA estimates 37 million people will drive 50 miles or more from their homes during Memorial Day Weekend, a 60 percent increase from last year, but still 13 percent below pre-pandemic levels.

"People are just excited to travel. Some folks have extra cash in their pockets and they're choosing to travel with that extra money," Sergio Avila, spokesperson for AAA Northern California said.

Some of that extra money will go toward filling up at the pump, where gas prices are more than $4.00 a gallon in much of the Bay Area.

"Through the research AAA has done in the past, we've discovered that high gas prices doesn't typically deter someone from driving to their destination, but they might cut corners when they get there," Avila said.

Monday will be the day most travelers return home, and Avila advises vacationers to head home early, or expect to sit in traffic for quite a while.