Airlines Hit Major Milestone Processing 1 Million Passengers In One Day

For the first time since March 16, U.S. airlines processed 1 million passengers on a single day.

The milestone was reached on Sunday, according to the Dallas Morning News, which monitored how many passengers were screened by the Transportation Security Administration. All totaled, the TSA processed 1,031,505 people at checkpoints Sunday, bringing the total for the four-day weekend to more than 3.7 million.

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Airlines have been struggling since early this year, when the coronavirus pandemic began to hit the U.S. hard. A deeper dive into the numbers show:

– The million passengers were the most in seven months.

– The lowest point of the pandemic era was on April 14, when only 87,534 people went through security nationwide.

– The 1 million+ passengers represent about 40 percent capacity, still well off from the 2.6 million people who traveled on the same day last year but certainly showing that more people have been steadily traveling since the low point.

“TSA has been diligent in our efforts to ensure checkpoints are clean, safe and healthy for frontline workers and airline passengers, implementing new protocols and deploying state-of-the-art technologies that improve security and reduce physical contact,” said a statement from TSA Administrator David Pekoske.

TSA daily traffic numbers, which the agency began reporting near the beginning of the pandemic, show that airline traffic tends to spike sharply on Thursdays, Friday and Sundays, as travel has now become more decidedly leisure than business.