Get ready for another epic 4th of July weekend in New Jersey from tourists hitting our beaches to New Jerseyans making travel plans.
You can expect crowds wherever you go.
In fact, the Port Authority is predicting record travel.
More than 5 million people heading out on the roads, in the air or on the rails.
Ted Goldberg spoke to travel experts and people already on the move about what to expect for those coming and going this holiday weekend.
Just ahead of July 4th.
Newark Airport is full of travelers, some of them relieved to see fewer fliers than expected.
Pretty chill right now.
We're ready.
And the toys we were.
We want us to move.
It's been a pleasant surprise for the passengers in Terminal B, which include couples celebrating their anniversary.
Tourists going on trips and toddlers going to see family.
This is the U.S. so far.
We'll see you when we get to security.
I have been traveling a lot, so I was in nice.
Those have travel traveling plans for you so far.
But, of course, that's just in terminal B in the morning.
Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt says the rest of the airport might be a completely different story.
The number of people at any one terminal is going to be a function of the airlines that fly there and their schedules.
United operates from Terminal A, Terminals A and C, and as the largest airline at Newark, they're going to drive the most traffic, the largest number of passengers.
Passengers I spoke with were pleasantly surprised at the lack of hustle and bustle needed to make their flights.
I travel every week, so but yeah, this is I don't think there are any crowds actually compared to every other week.
So, yeah, quite nice, actually.
It's not crazy today, but booking flights, it was crazy.
So I couldn't get a flight for tomorrow, so I had to come today.
The price was like double for tomorrow.
It's been pretty good.
Park Everything's been.
Yeah.
So far.
Yes.
Yeah.
So we just can't wait to get our pina coladas.
While some fliers are ready for pina coladas.
Others have been caught in the rain.
And I had a huge delay of 17 hours.
So I had to stay in the airport for about 20 hours.
It was a nightmare.
But, you know, it's part of the job because of the weather.
And then the crew did not came for the delayed flight.
And this is part of the issue.
Other issues at Newark this week have included a shortage of air traffic controllers on Monday and the sheer volume of people coming and going.
Triple triple-A expects more than 2 million New Jerseyans to travel at least 50 miles this week, and about 182,000 of them will fly.
I'm pleasantly surprised that everything is going well.
Everybody has been nice.
There's like not a lot of running.
So this is pleasant.
The fact that things are calm and moving.
Well, we're going to we're going to take the good when we've got the good and hope that travel can remain smooth.
Those numbers are about a 5% increase from this time period last year.
Travel analysts have different theories as to why more people are traveling for the fourth.
People are traveling differently, and that has a lot to do with remote or high remote or hybrid work.
New Jersey schools go quite late into June, so this is the first family vacation that a lot of folks are going to be taking for the summer.
Airfares are down slightly compared to last year.
July 4th weekend this year, we've got July 4th on a Thursday.
And a lot of people are turning this into four or five day weekends or building a weeklong trip around the holiday.
For whatever reasons they want.
Plenty of people in New Jersey will travel today and tomorrow.
So expect Newark Airport to stay busy through the fourth and the weekend after it.
At Newark Airport, I'm Ted Goldberg.
NJ Spotlight News.