Labor Day weekend traffic moves up the northbound lanes of the Maine Turnpike in Wells on Sept. 2, 2022. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer, file

Labor Day weekend traffic was up slightly over last year’s end-of-summer holiday, the Maine Turnpike Authority reported Tuesday.

A total of 1.1 million transactions – the measure of how many times vehicles go through tolls – were recorded from Friday through Monday at the state’s 17 toll plazas, the agency reported. That’s an increase of 0.5% from 2023. The turnpike authority projected a 0.9% increase before the start of the weekend.

Turnpike motorists include tourists and Maine residents. Toll data indicate the health of the tourism season, with many motorists driving from points south, particularly Massachusetts, Connecticut and the New York/New Jersey region.

Friday accounted for the largest share of the weekend traffic, with 371,271 transactions recorded, according to the turnpike authority. The York toll interchange was the busiest, “as was to be expected,” said turnpike spokesperson Erin Courtney. York is the southernmost toll on the Maine Turnpike.

Zach Sundquist, assistant airport director at the Portland International Jetport, said Labor Day weekend numbers are not yet available, but that 22% more airplane seats have been filled in and out of Portland this year over 2023. For the last three days of August, 22.5% more seats were filled than last year. “It does appear we were holding right with our capacity gains,” Sundquist said.

The airport typically draws heavy inbound and immediately outbound flights on summer holidays and fewer at Thanksgiving and Christmas as travelers head to warmer climates, he said.

It’s more likely that additional seats are filled per plane rather than more planes arriving and departing, he said. Instead of two 75-seat planes, one 190-seat plane is in operation, he said. “We’ve been seeing fewer actual departures, but larger airplanes,” he said.

Becky Jacobson, executive director of Hospitality Maine, said she’s polled members of her lodging and restaurant association about the strength of weekend business. Complete results were not available Tuesday, but she said anecdotal evidence shows that the long weekend was good for lodging and restaurant members.

“The weather was good,” Jacobsen said. “The whole summer was good.”

In comparison with last summer, which was invariably rainy, the recent past was “pretty much ideal for the summer,” Jacobson said. In addition, a “great weather forecast” before the Labor Day weekend may have helped draw visitors, she said.

Inflation is a persistent problem, inflicting economic pain on business owners and their customers. “Expenses are still high because everything is more expensive,” Jacobson said.

About 4,700 cruise passengers on three boats were expected to disembark in Portland over the holiday weekend, according to an online schedule maintained by the Maine Office of Tourism. A city official could not confirm the final number Tuesday.