Travelers return to airports in pre-pandemic numbers over Fourth of July holiday weekend

Gas prices, crowds and flight delays didn't seem to keep Americans at home this Fourth of July as travel numbers climbed on the roads and in the skies.

WASHINGTON - Gas prices, crowds and flight delays didn't seem to keep Americans at home this Fourth of July as travel numbers climbed on the roads and in the skies.

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More than 9 million flyers flocked to U.S. airports between Thursday and Sunday, peaking at 2.49 million, a pandemic-era record, on Friday, according to figures from the Transportation Security Administration. Over 77,000 from the D.C. region were expected to fly to their destinations over the July Fourth weekend.

By late Monday afternoon on the East Coast, more than 2,200 U.S. flights had been delayed and more than 200 canceled, according to FlightAware.

Across the nation, AAA forecasted nearly 48 million would hit the road to celebrate Independence Day. AAA Mid-Atlantic told FOX 5 last week that they expected over one million Washington metro area residents to have traveled 50 miles or more this holiday weekend.

Despite historically high gas prices that are over the $5 mark, 90 percent of those who traveled were expected to do so by car.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report