Travel experts are predicting fewer people will fly this Labor Day season despite the fact that AAA reports fares are down.

AAA of the Carolinas expects Labor Day fliers in this area to drop from 60,000 over the 2008 Labor Day weekend to 39,000 this year. Nationally, the prediction is for 1 million fewer people to fly this weekend.

Despite that, analysts say those who do fly should expect planes to be full this year, because airlines began cutting the number of planes in the air last year.

Meanwhile, more than 1 million North Carolinians are expected to travel at least 50 miles over the weekend, and 113,000 more people are expected to travel this holiday than they did over Memorial Day despite higher gas prices – a 13 percent increase according to AAA.

Popular driving destinations include the N.C. mountains and coastal beaches.

With that many people on the roadways, the N.C. Department of Transportation is suspending most road construction over the holiday to help with traffic.