By the Arkansas Black Vitality Staff

LITTLE ROCK – May 22, 2026 – Despite rising gas prices and inflation-driven travel costs, Arkansans are hitting the roads in record numbers this Memorial Day, kicking off the traditional summer driving and vacation season.

AAA, formerly the American Automobile Association, projects 45 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home for Memorial Day between Thursday, May 21 and Monday, May 25.

This year’s domestic travel forecast is slightly higher than last year and sets a new Memorial Day weekend record with 39.1 million people traveling by car and 3.66 million expected to fly to their destinations. While gas prices are higher than last Memorial Day weekend, average flight ticket prices are lower than last year for those who booked early. 

“Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, and for most Americans, it’s a three-day weekend,” said Stacey Barber, Vice President of AAA Travel. “Travel demand remains strong, and despite higher fuel prices, many people are prioritizing leisure travel during holiday breaks.” 

According to AAA, driving is the most popular mode of travel and accounts for 87% of Memorial Day travelers. This holiday weekend, drivers are paying more at the pump compared to last year when the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.17 on Memorial Day. 

This year, Memorial Day weekend gas prices are the highest they’ve been in four years. The national average for a gallon of regular is at $4.56, up 3 cents over last week and $1.38 higher than this time last year. Current prices are close to what drivers were paying 4 years ago, when the national average on Memorial Day was $4.61. 

In Arkansas, gas prices remain among the nation’s lowest at $4.11 per gallon for regular unleaded. However, that price is 55 cents higher than a month ago and a whopping $1.30 per gallon higher than on Memorial Day 2025.

With gasoline demand on the rise and the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, pump prices are likely to remain elevated as the summer travel season gets underway. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said international oil markets continued their upward march over the past week as geopolitical tensions and uncertainty surrounding U.S.-Iran negotiations kept traders focused on the growing risk of supply disruptions.

While hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough had briefly pressured prices lower in prior weeks, optimism faded as talks appeared to stall again, reinforcing concerns that tensions could persist or escalate further. Continued unease surrounding shipping flows and export infrastructure has helped rebuild a sizable geopolitical risk premium into crude prices.

“The national average price of gasoline spent much of last week drifting lower after jumping early in the week as oil prices softened on hopes that diplomatic progress between the U.S. and Iran could help ease supply concerns,” De Haan said in a Memorial Day research note this week. “However, that optimism faded after President Trump’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping failed to produce a breakthrough on Iran, while renewed warnings toward Tehran have helped push oil prices higher again.

“With global oil inventories continuing to trend toward historically tight levels, markets remain extremely sensitive to geopolitical developments and potential supply disruptions,” he continued. “As a result, gasoline and diesel prices are likely to remain volatile, and with Memorial Day approaching, any sustained increase in oil prices could begin pushing retail fuel prices higher again in the weeks ahead.”

Meanwhile, the U.S Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently announced its Click It or Ticket campaign urging Americans to buckle up ahead of Memorial Day and the summer travel season. 

From May 11-31, state and local law enforcement will ramp up patrols to ensure every passenger and driver is buckled on roads across America. Unbuckled seatbelts accounted for a death in a passenger vehicle every 54 minutes in 2024, officials said.

“Buckling up only takes a second, and that second could be the difference between life or death in a crash,” said NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison. “We’re teaming up with law enforcement agencies nationwide to remind everyone to Click It or Ticket. Enforcing state and local seat belt laws will save countless lives.” 

For those traveling by air, AAA projects 3.66 million travelers will take domestic flights over Memorial Day weekend, a small increase over last year. Air travelers make up 8% of the share of travelers this holiday weekend. 

According to AAA data, which is based on what travelers paid when they booked their Memorial Day weekend trips, round-trip domestic flights are 6% cheaper compared to last year, with an average ticket costing $800. Most of those trips were booked before rising jet fuel prices began to affect airfare. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said earlier this week that it is staffed and ready to screen an expected 18.3 million passengers and crew at our nation’s airports, including Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock and XNA in Northwest Arkansas.

“Our TSA teams are completely staffed, so passengers should experience minimal wait times and have an enjoyable trip through our airports and on to their travel destinations,” said TSA Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator Ha McNeill.

TSA is also reminding air passengers to have a REAL ID or another acceptable form of ID, such as a passport, when entering airport security checkpoints. Passengers 18 and older are required to present a TSA-accepted form of identification. If you are unable to provide the required acceptable ID, you can pay a $45 fee to use TSA ConfirmID. 

In addition to Memorial Day, TSA said it is also gearing up for the FIFA World Cup kick off on June 11 in North America, including at 11 stadiums in the U.S. TSA said it will play a pivotal role to ensure the safety, security, and efficiency of our national and local transportation systems, including airports, rail, mass transit and surface transportation.

The largest and most complex sporting event in history is expected to bring approximately 6 million visitors from around the world, many of whom will go through security at our airports, officials said.