{"id":390557,"date":"2026-09-04T18:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/390557\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T18:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:26:10","slug":"labor-day-travel-costs-soar-as-gas-airfare-rise-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/390557\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor Day travel costs soar as gas, airfare rise in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Labor \"Labor Labor Day travel gets underway <\/a> <\/p>\n

Gas prices are at record levels for the Labor Day holiday, with the national average at $4.14 per gallon and Florida\u2019s average at $3.95. FOX 13’s Kellie Cowan reports.<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Typically, gas prices begin to fall around this time of year as summer driving demand declines. That\u2019s not happening this year.<\/p>\n

Rising Florida gas prices for Labor Day weekend <\/p>\n

By the numbers:<\/p>\n

According to AAA, the national average for regular gasoline was $4.14 per gallon as of September 3, 2026. That\u2019s up from $3.19 at the same time last year, a roughly 30% increase.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

AAA says the national average has never previously been above $4 per gallon on Labor Day. The previous Labor Day record was $3.82 per gallon, set in 2012.<\/p>\n

In Florida, drivers are paying somewhat less than the national average. On Friday, AAA reported a state average of $3.95 per gallon, up by 81 cents compared to the same date last year.<\/p>\n

AAA says the higher prices are being driven in part by elevated crude oil costs caused by ongoing turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz, with oil trading around $90 per barrel.<\/p>\n

Travel inflation costs <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the cost of filling up the tank that has gone up.<\/p>\n

NerdWallet\u2019s August 2026 Travel Inflation Report found that overall U.S. travel costs were 9% higher in July than they were a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Airfare was the biggest driver of that increase. NerdWallet found U.S. airfare prices were up 25.5% compared with July 2025.<\/p>\n

Hotel prices were also higher, increasing 2.6% year over year, while the cost of dining out rose 3.4%.<\/p>\n

Spirit Airlines\u2019 shutdown in May 2026 scrubbed a low-cost option and reduced competition in the airline industry, which can give remaining carriers more pricing power.<\/p>\n

Labor Day traveler expectations <\/p>\n

Why you should care:<\/p>\n

AAA spokesperson Mark Jenkins says Americans are still planning to travel despite the higher costs.<\/p>\n

“We are expecting a very busy Labor Day, but it does cost more to take that trip,” Jenkins said. “People are\u00a0kind of expecting\u00a0to pay more at the pump.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0not typically a dealbreaker for people.\u00a0By and large, we\u00a0still expect people to take that trip. I think, in many cases, you tend to see people budgeting more.”<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re traveling this Labor Day weekend, expect to pay more whether you\u2019re driving or flying.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Gas prices are at record levels for the holiday, while airfare has risen substantially compared with last year.<\/p>\n

On the road, expect plenty of traffic on the roads as people head to beaches, college football games and theme parks.<\/p>\n

Orlando is also expected to be the second-busiest tourist destination in the country for the long weekend.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this story was provided by AAA, News Service of Florida and\u00a0NerdWallet\u2019s August 2026 Travel Inflation Report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a>Economy<\/a>Consumer<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labor Day travel gets underway Gas prices are at record levels for the Labor Day holiday, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1917,47,28,30,29,629,2159,115,135,628,16338],"class_list":["post-390557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-consumer","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hillsborough","tag-money","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-us","tag-us-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}