Post Thanksgiving Sunday Busiest Ever for TSA

Officially confirming what many travelers already knew, the Transportation Security Administration says the Sunday after Thanksgiving was the busiest it has ever experienced in its history.

On Sunday, Nov. 25 more than 2.7 million travelers passed through TSA screening, the largest number of screenings in a single day in the agency’s 17-year existence.

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More than 25.6 million passengers and crew members were screened during the weeklong Thanksgiving holiday travel period, which is a six percent increase from 2017.

“It was all hands on deck during the Thanksgiving holiday week,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement, adding that close coordination with airlines and airport partners, new technology, enhanced screening and more travelers enrolled in TSA Pre-Check, made the process much smoother.

Even though the volume of individuals screened was remarkably high, nationwide 95 percent of all passengers waited less than 20 minutes in a checkpoint line and 99 percent of passengers who were in a TSA Pre-Check lane waited less than 10 minutes in a security checkpoint line, the agency said.

Between Friday, Nov. 16, through Monday, Nov. 26, TSA also screened more than 15 million checked bags.

Typically, an average travel day would see TSA screen about 2.1 million passengers and crew, but in the busiest days of the Thanksgiving travel week, TSA screened more than a half million more passengers per day than usual. There has been nearly four percent annual passenger growth over the last few years, TSA said.