Travelers cope with crowds and high prices on the busiest day of Memorial Day weekend

Travelers contended with big crowds and flight delays Friday, which was expected to be the busiest day of the Memorial Day weekend.

More than 6,000 U.S. flights were delayed by early evening on the East Coast, continuing a trend that has tested the patience of travelers all week. Cancellations were more modest, at slightly more than 200, according to tracking data from FlightAware.

There were delays on the highways, too.

Along Florida's Turnpike, Wallis Tinnie said a traffic accident and road work slowed her drive to an African American history commemoration in the Florida Panhandle, the site in 1816 of the first battle of the Seminole Wars.

“But we're comfortable with it,” the Miami woman said during a stop at Port Saint Lucie. “We left early, and our event is tomorrow. So hopefully — God willing, creek don't rise — we'll be there in plenty of time.”

The Transportation Security Administration predicted that Friday would be the busiest day of the holiday weekend for air travel, with nearly 3 million people expected to pass through airport checkpoints. TSA screened just under 2.9 million people Thursday, coming within about 11,000 of breaking the record set on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year.

“Airports are going to be more packed than we have seen in 20 years,” AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said.

Highways also are likely to be jammed as motorists head out of town and then return home. AAA predicted this will be the busiest start-of-summer weekend in nearly 20 years, with 43.8 million people expected to roam at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday — 38 million of them taking vehicles.

The annual expression of wanderlust that accompanies the start of the summer travel season is happening at a time when Americans tell pollsters they are worried about the economy and the direction of the country.

“Memorial Day is a holiday weekend. I get to hang with family and friends, so I’d say that’s priceless, right?" Nene Efebo said during a two-hour wait for a delayed flight at Denver International Airport. "Anything to hang out with family and friends.”

Victoria Ramos Valdes of Miami was taking a driving vacation with her husband, Blake, and their children, ages 3 and 4 months old.

“We said, hey, we're going to go for a $300 budget, and the hotel is around $150,” she said, but it has a water slide, providing plenty of entertainment. “We're taking a nice family trip and doing our best to have the best Memorial Day weekend possible.”

Some travelers reported experiencing sticker shock when they booked their trips. Upon arriving at Philadelphia International Airport, Ciarra Marsh said the city "was not our original destination, but we chose here because it was cheaper.”

At Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, Larisa Latimer of New Lenox, Illinois, said her airfare was reasonable but other expenses for a getaway to New Orleans were not.

“I just have to make the accommodation,” she said. “The rental car is up ... this year, the hotel accommodations were very unusually expensive.”

Kathy Larko of Fort Myers, Florida, used frequent-flyer miles — and some flexible scheduling — to pay for her trip to Chicago.

“I’m really conscious of looking at the cost of the entire trip. We’re staying a little farther out than we normally would” to get a lower hotel rate, she said. “We’re also flying back a day later, because we could get cheaper miles.”

The weekend's highway traffic and crowded airports could be a sample of what is to come for several more weeks. U.S. airlines expect to carry a record number of passengers this summer. Their trade group estimates that 271 million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31, breaking the record of 255 million set – you guessed it – last summer.

This story was previously updated to correct the spelling Fort Myers, Florida.

Cody Jackson in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, Melissa Perez Winder in Chicago and Shelley Adler in Washington contributed to this report.

Michelle Winters plays the violin as passengers stand in line at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport ahead of Memorial Day, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Atlanta.(AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Travelers walk through Salt Lake City International Airport Friday, May 24, 2024, in Salt Lake City. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Travelers walk through Salt Lake City International Airport Friday, May 24, 2024, in Salt Lake City. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Travelers walk through Salt Lake City International Airport Friday, May 24, 2024, in Salt Lake City. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Travelers walk through Salt Lake City International Airport Friday, May 24, 2024, in Salt Lake City. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Travelers move through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport ahead of Memorial Day, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Atlanta.(AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Travelers move through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport ahead of Memorial Day, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Atlanta.(AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Cars drive through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport ahead of Memorial Day, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Atlanta.(AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Travelers walk through the concourse at Miami International Airport ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

A member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security patrols at Miami International Airport, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Miami. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Gasoline prices are displayed on a sign outside a service station as the Memorial Day holiday travel period kicks off Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Greenwood Village, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Travelers walk through the concourse at Miami International Airport, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Miami. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Travelers make their way through security at Denver International Airport on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Highways and airports are likely to be jammed in the coming days as Americans head out on Memorial Day weekend getaways. AAA predicts this will be the busiest start-of-summer weekend in nearly 20 years with 43.8 million people expected to travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Travelers ride an escalator down to the concourse at Miami International Airport ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Traffic slowly moves along Interstate 405 on Thursday, May 23, 2024, in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. Highways and airports are likely to be jammed in the coming days as Americans head out on and home from Memorial Day weekend getaways. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Travelers walk to a TSA checkpoint at the Los Angeles International Airport Tom Bradley International Terminal Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Los Angeles. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Travelers wait at a TSA checkpoint at the Los Angeles International Airport, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Los Angeles. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Pasha Pidlubniak waits for a domestic flight at Miami International Airport, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Miami. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Travelers wait at a TSA checkpoint at Miami International Airport, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Miami. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Motorists travel westbound along Interstate 40, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. A record number of Americans are expected to hit the pavement over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Motorists travel along Interstate 24 near the Interstate 40 interchange Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. A record number of Americans are expected to hit the pavement over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Todd Robinson trims along the rows of headstones at the Marietta National Cemetery located at 500 Washington Ave NE in Marietta, Ga., Thursday, May 23, 2024, in preparation for Memorial Day weekend. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Samuel Tadros and his daughter Serenity 3, sit with the family's bags after their flight to New York was cancelled at the Nashville international Airport Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Travelers make their way through the Nashville international Airport, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

George Ridley, 4, left, rides on a suitcase as he and his father Chris Ridley make their way through the Nashville international Airport, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Citra Gonzalez, 3, left, and her sister Camellia Gonzalez, 6, wait in line with their mother Deanna Oswald, above, to check in for their flight at the Nashville international Airport, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. A record number of Americans are expected to travel over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

FILE - Motorists traveling on Interstates 90-94 head north of Chicago on Memorial Day, May 26, 2023. A record number of Americans are expected to hit the pavement over the 2024 Memorial Day holiday. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

FILE - Travelers move through a security checkpoint in Denver International Airport ahead of the Memorial Day holiday on May 26, 2023, in Denver. A record number of Americans are expected to hit the pavement and the air over the 2024 Memorial Day weekend. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

LaBELLE, Fla. (AP) — One of Florida’s poorest counties is preparing for the new “Airglades” airport, a $300 million cargo hub that could transform its economy.

Local leaders see the project as a generational opportunity, one that could bring more than 1,400 new, high-skilled jobs to their largely agricultural community at the edge of the Everglades. But to make good on its promise, the region’s educators will have to overcome some harsh realities.

A third of Hendry County’s working-age adults lack a high-school diploma, while almost half speak a language other than English at home, among the highest in Florida. Before local leaders can prepare residents for jobs in engineering and manufacturing, educators must first help them earn their GEDs and learn English.

“We have some of God’s most beautiful country that has never been touched by man,” said Michael Swindle, the county schools superintendent, and yet “by all the metrics you would judge a county on, we’re either No. 1 or No. 2 in the ugly categories.”

As the airport project pursues approval, community groups and schools are working to fill teacher shortages and make investments in adult education.

The challenges also include some political headwinds. Most of the county’s workforce is Black and Latino. Efforts to tailor education to serve those demographic groups have drawn scrutiny in Florida, where politicians have forbidden programs factoring race and national origin into people's treatment. Educators say the political context adds to the difficulties in recruiting teachers.

The plan to convert the small, county-owned airport to private ownership still has to win approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which will depend partly on solidifying contracts with vendors in Latin America to prove its potential as a hub for perishable goods.

Meanwhile, two adult education centers in the county expanded with support from the FutureMakers Coalition, a community organization that has spearheaded education retraining efforts across southwest Florida. It also is paying for a counselor to help adults looking to develop new skills and change careers.

Spanish-speaking students have filled the adult education center in LaBelle, the 5,000-person county seat.

Many are working jobs or have kids at home, which has forced their instructor, Silvia Gullett, to get creative to meet their needs. She started a WhatsApp group so students could organize carpooling or split childcare duties. If students don’t show up to class, Gullett texts them to figure out the problem. She doesn’t settle for easy excuses.

“In the beginning, I had some students who didn’t want to continue. I try to tell people that the only one who can stop them is themselves,” said Gullett, who was born in Peru before starting her teaching career in Florida two decades ago.

At the country's other adult education center, in Clewiston, sparks fly as dozens of students in thick gloves and respirator masks work toward industrial certifications needed to enter the workforce. One of them, Samantha Garza, 21, initially studied child care at a community college in Fort Myers but pivoted after watching YouTube videos about female welders.

“I’m an artsy person, so I have more of a steady hand already, and I love to be down and dirty doing physical things, so I felt like this would be a career for me,” she said.

Even before the airport arrives, there are still plenty of local employers waiting to hire the students. As current employees near retirement age, U.S. Sugar, the Clewiston-based farming giant, has such urgent needs it started an in-house welding program.

“We’re trying to close that generation gap between mechanics and welders,” said Nathan Hollis, an industrial skills trainer at the company.

Finding enough instructors to offer the training has been a challenge. Swindle had to recruit a U.S. Sugar worker to teach welding and coax a school bus mechanic out of retirement to lead the diesel mechanics program.

Still, the program has been so successful the county is using tuition revenue and donations to open another training facility in LaBelle focused on HVAC and plumbing.

There has been controversy around some efforts, including a slide on the topic of “white privilege” shown during a teacher training event led by FutureMakers. It sparked an outcry from conservative activists who accused organizers of racism, and a Republican city commissioner in LaBelle suggested it violated the “ Stop WOKE Act ” signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican.

The political climate in Florida has made it difficult to attract K-12 teachers, according to Swindle. In a state where DeSantis has harnessed culture war passions in his education policies, Swindle said many of his teachers feel unsupported.

“The rhetoric around public education is horrible. It absolutely does hurt us,” Swindle said.

Teacher shortages threaten local schools’ ability to teach not just welders and mechanics, but also construction workers, nurses and other professionals to support the influx of people the airport could bring.

“We don’t have a chemistry or physics teacher in high school. We’ve left the job openings up for three years, and we can’t even get someone to apply,” Swindle said.

The county has been running more marketing campaigns to recruit educators and paying paraprofessionals to secure licenses so they can become teachers with help from a $23 million Good Jobs Challenge grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

There is a lot at stake for Swindle's long-time home.

The superintendent knows where the alligators lie, sunbathing along the acres of canals that irrigate fields of sugarcane. He knows which sabal palms make the best swamp cabbage, teaching his sons how to cut palm hearts out with his knife, like their ancestors did to survive leaner times.

Yet there is no way to know if all his retraining efforts will be successful. The airport still might not come, especially if the county can’t prove it will have the workers ready to support it.

For now, officials are trying to fill current workforce needs while test-driving their ability to spin up new training programs. Once construction begins on the airport, they know they will have about two years to teach a wave of logistics operators, agricultural customs inspectors and other aviation-specific professionals.

“We’re not just talking about an airport,” Swindle said. “We’re looking at this as an opportunity to move the needle on unemployment, on poverty, to a better place.”

Nick Fouriezos covers the role of college in rural America for Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. Sign up for his newsletter, Mile Markers.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Airplanes parked on the tarmac Thursday, March 14 ,2024 at the Airglades Airport in Hendry County, Fla. One of Florida’s poorest counties is preparing for the new “Airglades” airport, a $300 million cargo hub that could transform its economy. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Joel Conner, Grant Manager & Supervisor of Hendry County Adult Learning, in the auto shop on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. Students get hands on education in the Automotive Mechanics Program that is offered as an alternative for adult education where students gain the necessary experience to receive certification and enter the local workforce after completion in Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Lead Mechanic Instructor Albert Williams helps Carlos Flores with a piece of equipment that will not start during The Hendry County Adult Learning Automative Skills Lab on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. The program helps adults gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion in Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Students gather around a piece of equipment in the Hendry County Adult Automative Skills Lab on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. Student gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion in Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Joel Conner, Grand manager & Supervisor with Hendry County Adult Learning, looks at the success of past students on a wall of photos in the classroom of the Auto Mechanic Program on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. The center offers an alternative to adult education where students gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion in Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Joel Conner, Grant Manager & Supervisor of Hendry County Adult Learning, talking with Lead Welding Instructor Travis Hall on Thursday, March 14 ,2024 concerning topics of their welding program in Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

K'Jan Mason, a student of Hendry County Adult Learning participating in the welding program, continues to perfect his skills during his class project on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. The program helps adults gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion in Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Eric Madrid, a student of Hendry County Adult Learning participating in the welding program, using a bandsaw to cut a plate before he starts his welding assignment on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. The program helps adults gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion in Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Joel Conner, Grant Manager & Supervisor of Hendry County Adult Learning, talking about the welding program they offer as a another alternative to adult education where students gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion in Clewiston, Fla. Thursday, March 14 ,2024 (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Airplanes parked on the tarmac Thursday, March 14 ,2024 at the Airglades Airport in Hendry County, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Cruze Ponce, a student of Hendry County Adult Learning participating in the welding program, continues to perfect his skills during his class project on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. The program helps adults gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion. Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

Cruze Ponce, a student of Hendry County Adult Learning participating in the welding program, meticulously welds during his class project on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. The program helps adults gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion. Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)

K'Jan Mason, a student of Hendry County Adult Learning participating in the welding program checks the torch prior to a welding project on Thursday, March 14 ,2024. The program helps adults gain the necessary experience to receive certification and immediately enter the local workforce after completion in Clewiston, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris Tilley)