Millions Expected To Hit Roads, Skies For Busy 4th Of July Travel Weekend

Despite severe weather delays create chaos for airports around the nation, resulting in thousands of delayed and canceled flights, Los Angeles International Airport officials expect the month of July to be their busiest of the summer travel season, with more than 3 million passengers predicted to travel through the popular hub the Fourth of July holiday weekend. 

"The busy summer travel season is upon us at LAX and we expect passenger volumes to reach the highest levels we have seen so far this year with an average of 228,000 daily passengers in the days before and after the Independence Day holiday," said Justin Erbacci, the CEO of Los Angeles World Airports, in a statement."

LAX officials predict that the busiest days of the weekend will be Friday, when 245,000 are expected, and July 10, when 251,000 are anticipated. 

Those numbers reflect about 90% of passenger volume that the airport experience pre-pandemic back in March 2019, and are going to be amongst some of the busiest travel days since early 2020. 

Between the road and sky, travel experts expect to see more people travel than the last four years, with a near-record 3.4 million Southern Californians predicted to travel over the same timespan — just shy of the 2019 record, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California. 

2.7 million of those travelers are set to flood local freeways for their Fourth of July celebrations, with traffic analytics predicting that the worst congestion will occur Sunday evening on I-15 heading towards Las Vegas. 

Nationally, about 51 million people are expected to travel, surpassing a record set in 2019.