Bay Area travelers gear up for gangbusters Labor Day weekend

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Ahead of the holiday weekend, many gas stations around the Bay Area were packed Friday.

"Can you stay off the road tomorrow all the way to L.A.?" asked Lauren Khan.

Khan was filling up her tank in Millbrae ahead of a trip to visit family in Southern California.

AAA says they're anticipating a 4% rise from last year in Labor Day travelers on the nation's roadways.

"We started seeing really before Memorial Day this return to pre-pandemic numbers or close to pre-pandemic numbers," said AAA spokesperson, John Treanor.

Thousands of people around the Bay Area are expected to hit the roads this holiday weekend. But they won't just be traveling by car, they'll also be going by air and airports nationwide are expected to be packed.

"What we've learned through our research is travelers prioritize travel in their savings and in their budgets," said Henry Harteveldt.

Harteveldt is a travel industry analyst based in San Francisco.

He says if you'll be traveling through an airport over the next few days, having patience is essential.

"Give yourself more time to get through airport security even if you have TSA Precheck," Harteveldt said.

The TSA is expecting to screen over 14 million passengers in airports around the county through Wednesday.

SFO, though, is one of the few major airports in the nation still below 2019 levels.

Something that could be seen at the departures hall Friday night.

"When I was checking in online I got an offer, hey do you want to change your flight, do you want compensation or something and go to a later flight? I was expecting it to be much more packed and I got here three, four hours early and it's a ghost town," said Rohan Sharma.

And while some say they're planning ahead this Labor Day weekend, others not so much.

"Probably not. You just going to wing it? Yeah, I'll just do my normal," said Jiji John.

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