Labor Day travel: TSA screens record number of passengers during coronavirus pandemic
More than 3.2M passengers were screened from Friday to Monday
Labor Day was a big weekend for flying, new data shows.
According to the Transportation Security Administration, more people flew over the holiday weekend than any other time during the coronavirus pandemic.
In fact, the TSA screened more than 900,000 passengers twice. The TSA hasn’t screened that many people since March 17, when 953,699 travelers were screened.
UNITED AIRLINES ADDING, RESTORING FLIGHTS IN OCTOBER
Friday held the record with 968,673 travelers, but Monday was close behind with 935,308 travelers, TSA checkpoint travel numbers show. Thursday also saw a high number of passengers, reaching 877,698.
The previous record for the most travelers in one day since the pandemic started was made on August 16, when 862,949 travelers went through TSA checkpoints, according to the data.
Combined, more than 3.2 million passengers were screened by the TSA from Friday to Monday.
However, that’s still much lower than the more than 8.6 million passengers who were screened over the same days last year.
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“Passenger volume on the busiest day of the Labor Day weekend was up 30 percent from the busiest day of the July Fourth holiday weekend,” David Pekoske, a TSA administrator said in a statement. “This is an encouraging trend for the aviation sector as airports, airlines and TSA work together to ensure a secure and safe travel experience for passengers.”
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However, the airline industry is still struggling, according to Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants.
On Sunday, Nelson told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend” that Americans are still hesitant to fly.
“The airline industry is still right in the middle of this crisis,” she said. “And what the industry has done is put in place required mask policies, changed their cleaning procedures, talked about [how] the air filtration is safer than in an office building. They've done a lot of things to try to convince people, but it's just not happening. So people are choosing to drive rather than fly.”