2.5M people screened at airports Sunday, most since pandemic began: TSA

The Transportation Security Administration said it conducted screenings of more 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 same date in 2021 and 117.7% higher than the 1.176 million in 2020, according to data published by the agency. Comparatively, in 2019, before the pandemic started, TSA screened more than 2.88 million travelers on Nov. 27.

The more than 2.56 million individuals screened Sunday “marked the highest checkpoint volume since the start of the pandemic,” TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein tweeted.

The Thanksgiving travel season – which ran Friday, Nov. 18, to Sunday, Nov. 27, this year – is typically a very busy time for air travel, with the Tuesday and Wednesday before the holiday and the Sunday after it usually being the three busiest days of the period, according to the TSA.

Prior to the holiday travel period, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement that the agency expected that it would be “busier this year than last year at this time, and probably very close to pre-pandemic levels.” The TSA had anticipated as many as an estimated 2.5 million people could be screened on Nov. 23 and potentially more than that the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

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In mid-November, AAA had projected some 54.6 million people would travel at least 50 miles for Thanksgiving, estimating nearly 49 million via car and about 4.5 million via plane between Nov. 23 and Nov. 27.