A record number of flyers traveled over Thanksgiving weekend, despite CDC advice
didn’t want Americans to travel over Thanksgiving, but that didn’t necessarily stop them.
The Transportation Security Administration set a new pandemic record Sunday for the number of travelers who passed through U.S. airport checkpoints.
The agency saw nearly 1.2 million travelers through TSA checkpoints that day. More than 1 million travelers also passed through checkpoints Friday, Sunday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Since the coronavirus pandemic began more than eight months ago, the TSA has hit that milestone only one other time, on Oct. 18.
Or course, the number of air travelers was still far below last year’s levels amid a severe drop-off in travel as coronavirus cases and travel restrictions mount.
Last year, the TSA reported 2.8 million travelers passed through security checkpoints nationwide on Dec. 1, the Sunday following the holiday. It marked the busiest day of the 2019 Thanksgiving season and set a record for the busiest day in the TSA’s 18-year history.