SAN DIEGO — The kick off to summer travel was seemingly smooth ‘soaring’ at the San Diego International Airport Monday afternoon as travelers headed home from the long holiday weekend.
“It’s good to see people coming back traveling, but right now we haven’t seen many crowds,” said Dan Taylor, as he waited for his flight home to New Jersey.
According to Auto Club of Southern California, San Diego was one of the top destinations to travel to this holiday weekend, but travelers didn’t seem to find many issues at the San Diego International Airport Monday.
“I was expecting it to be in our terms, heaving, but no, it’s been very pleasant,” said Stephanie Green, who was waiting in line at the British Airways Counter, one of the only lines visible at the San Diego International Airport Monday afternoon.
It wasn’t all sunny travels at every airport though.
“I’m from New York, the airport and everything was so hectic there, but here it was smooth sailing, I tell you I might move here, everybody I met was so nice,” said Owen Clifford, who visited from New York to meet his first grandson.
On Friday, travelers at the San Diego International Airport saw the most travel interruptions, compared to any other day in the long weekend. On Friday, there were 129 delays and three cancelations. Saturday and Sunday saw a combined total of 123 delays over the weekend.
“I waited like 20-25 minutes, not bad,” said Mary Wari, who traveled to Minnesota for a conference, and said she only had to wait in one line at the airport.
More than 40 flights were expected to land earlier than the scheduled time at the San Diego International Airport Monday afternoon.
According to the Auto Club of Southern California/AAA, train, bus and cruise travel was up 22% for Southern California residents this year. This weekend, train service resumed from San Diego to Orange County after a month-long closure and detour because of a cliff collapse at Casa Romantica in San Clemente.
“It was not any bit difficult at all, traffic was very easy,” Taylor said.
During Taylor’s trip to California, he and his son rented a car and drove from Los Angeles to Anaheim and ended their trip in America’s Finest City.
The Auto Club of Southern California/AAA estimated 2.8 million Southern Californians would drive to their three-day weekend destination this year.
“It’s been pretty busy,” California Highway Patrol PIO Jake Sanchez said.
CHP has been in maximum enforcement mode for the holiday weekend, with every officer, even administrative officer and chiefs on patrol Monday.
“For CHP and just within the county of San Diego, we’ve had 69 DUI arrests,” Sanchez said. That data only included Friday – Sunday. They gave out more than 793 citations as well. There were two fatalities in crashes over the weekend.
The Auto Club of Southern California/AAA said travel for Southern Californians was up 7.7% this Memorial Day weekend, compared to 2022. Could this mean a busier summer travel season, too?