Airport Security Screenings Exceed Pre-Pandemic Levels Ahead Of Holiday

Almost 2.15 million travelers traversed Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints on Thursday (July 1) in the lead-up to the holiday weekend, marking an increase from levels seen before the pandemic on July 1, 2019.

According to official data from the TSA, just over 2 million travelers were screened at TSA checkpoints on July 1, 2019, while approximately 765,000 were screened by the agency on July 1, 2020 amid the pandemic.

However, approximately 1.9 million travelers received a TSA screening on June 30, 2021 — significantly fewer travelers than the approximately 2.5 million screened on June 30, 2019 yet more than the approximately 626,500 screened on June 30, 2020.

“Many airports across the country are seeing passenger travel at pre-pandemic levels, especially in the mornings when flight schedules are compressed. Some airports are already exceeding 2019 travel volumes, including popular summer travel destinations … while others … are already close to pre-pandemic volumes ahead of the high-traffic holiday weekend,” the TSA said in a Thursday press release.

As PYMNTS previously reported, United Airlines revealed the newest expansion of its fleet — its biggest order for aircraft of all time. It represents a large wager on travel’s comeback throughout the board as the pandemic becomes history and individuals are amenable to flying the friendly skies once more.

Even though the pace of recovery in the U.S. has been fairly quick as coronavirus inoculations have expediently reached the public, the worldwide cadence of recovery has been much more sluggish. International travel will take much longer to return than its domestic counterpart, per a United Nations study.

“The first three months were again bad, there was not much travelling happening. There is an expectation of a certain recovery in the second half of the year, at least for North America and Europe to a certain extent,” Ralf Peters of UNCTAD’s trade analysis branch told one news outlet, attributing the quicker cadence of recovery in the U.S. and Europe to inoculations.