Holiday rush begins: More than 2 million travelers have passed through TSA checkpoints
advice to stay home this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2 million travelers on Friday and Saturday combined as vacations from school and work began.
The TSA screened 1,073,563 people on Saturdayand 1,066,747 travelers on Friday, according to a daily tally it began posting to track pandemic passenger trends. It is the first time since March that screenings have topped 1 million on consecutive days, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.
The numbers are still down significantly from a year ago, nearly 60% on each day.
But this is only the sixth and seventh time passenger counts topped 1 million since travel demand plummeted in mid-March. The low point came on April 14, with just 87,534 passengers screened.
filled with holiday travelers, if smaller crowds than a typical year. Passenger counts topped 1 million four times during the Thanksgiving rush, hitting a pandemic high of 1,176,091 on Nov. 29, the Sunday after the holiday, according to the TSA.
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