The Transportation Security Administration said it conducted screenings of greater than 2.56 million people at airport checkpoints the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Sunday’s TSA checkpoint travel number was 4.5% higher than the roughly 2.45 million screened on the identical date in 2021 and 117.7% higher than the 1.176 million in 2020, in response to data published by the agency. Comparatively, in 2019, before the pandemic began, TSA screened greater than 2.88 million travelers on Nov. 27.
The greater than 2.56 million individuals screened Sunday “marked the very best checkpoint volume for the reason that start of the pandemic,” TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein tweeted.
The Thanksgiving travel season – which ran Friday, Nov. 18, to Sunday, Nov. 27, this yr – is often a really busy time for air travel, with the Tuesday and Wednesday before the vacation and the Sunday after it normally being the three busiest days of the period, in response to the TSA.
Prior to the holiday travel period, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in an announcement that the agency expected that it could be “busier this yr than last yr presently, and possibly very near pre-pandemic levels.” The TSA had anticipated as many as an estimated 2.5 million people could possibly be screened on Nov. 23 and potentially greater than that the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
In mid-November, AAA had projected some 54.6 million people would travel at the very least 50 miles for Thanksgiving, estimating nearly 49 million via automobile and about 4.5 million via plane between Nov. 23 and Nov. 27.