CHARLESTOWN, R.I. – At the Gulf gas station off Route 1 here, business is booming.

Drivers heading for nearby beaches are filling up their tanks, paying prices that averaged 13 cents higher than last week’s prices around the state. The Gulf station’s busiest season is summer, when beachgoers need to fill their tanks no matter how much gas costs, station employee Carl Ross said.

“Some of them complain,” he said. “Not all of them. They know it isn’t our fault.”

Around the country, higher fuel costs are hitting individuals and industries. A gallon of regular unleaded gas in Rhode Island averaged $2.42 this week, according to a state survey.

In Maine, the price hit a record $2.31 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA, up 17 cents in the past month and 40 cents in the past year. Prices ranged from a low of $2.17 a gallon for regular in Corinth to a high of $2.49 in the Calais area, according to the MaineGasPrices.com Web site on Monday.

In Massachusetts, prices averaged $2.36 a gallon, also a 13 cent rise from last week, according to the Southern New England chapter of AAA.

In New York City, drivers paid an average of $2.45 per gallon. In Michigan, it was $2.38, and in San Diego it was $2.55.

Nationally, gas prices have hit a record high of $2.33 a gallon for all grades – or $2.31 for a gallon of regular unleaded – pushed up by the climbing cost of oil and strong demand in the midst of the summer vacation season, industry analysts say.

The average price, based on figures gathered Friday, was up nearly a dime from the survey two weeks earlier, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country. Still, the number was below the inflation-adjusted high of $3.03 a gallon set in March 1981, Lundberg said.

Lundberg said demand for gasoline was up 2.5 percent compared with last June, and prices could climb higher if crude oil prices stay around $60 a barrel. However, on Monday, crude oil prices fell below $59.

That didn’t help Jeannine Keough, who was making her way to the Rhode Island coast Monday morning.

“When you need the gas, you need it,” she said, bemoaning how much it would cost her to fill her tank later this week.

“I’ll just deal with it,” said Keough, 50, of Pawtucket, R.I. For now, she’s keeping her eyes open for the lowest price and using her car’s air conditioning as little as possible.

Michaela Greene of Taunton, Mass., said she was shocked by the higher prices in New England. Prices were lower in Florida, where she moved from, she said.

“I noticed it driving back up,” she said. “Just when you think it’s getting lower, it goes back up.”

Greene said she uses her car’s air conditioning only on the hottest days, when she can’t drive without it. Otherwise, she drives with her windows open to save gas and take advantage of the breeze.

Tom Portesi of Warwick, R.I., spent the weekend camping in Burlingame State Park, but he took the time Sunday to look around for the cheapest gas he could find.

“I’m not happy about it,” he said.

Some business were also feeling a pinch.

Airlines are seeing overall costs skyrocket because of higher fuel costs, said Jack Evans, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association. Industry losses could total more than $5 billion this year, largely because of the record-high fuel prices, he said.

Air carriers are hesitant to increase fares because consumers can shop around for the cheapest plane ticket, though some carriers are trying to pass along modest fare increases, Evans said.

While airlines have been hit hard, the country’s largest trucking companies have weathered soaring diesel prices by tacking on surcharges.

“We’re still not having any trouble collecting the fuel surcharge,” Yellow Roadway Corp. chief executive Bill Zollars said. There’s no slowdown in the demand for shipping, he added.

Associated Press Business Writer Brad Foss in Washington contributed to this report.