by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:43 AM ET, Tue June 1, 2021
Despite the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that over 1.9 million people were screened at airport checkpoints around the United States on Memorial Day.
According to the TSA's official website, 1,900,170 travelers were screened at security checkpoints on Monday, up from the 353,261 passengers recorded on the same date in 2020, but down from the 2,499,002 people screened in 2019.
Travelers got it started on Thursday, May 27, when 1,854,534 people passed through TSA security posts, followed up by a post-pandemic record of 1,959,593 on Friday, 1,605,810 on Saturday and 1,650,454 on Sunday.
In total, the five-day 2021 Memorial Day holiday travel period saw security agents screen over 8.9 million passengers across the U.S. In 2020, officers recorded 4.5 million people going through airports during the same period.
Before Friday, the TSA didn't count 1.9 million travelers or more in a single day since March 8, 2020. Passenger totals dropped below one million on March 16 and took seven months before the number of fliers in a single day went back over one million on October 18.
In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Americans who have received an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine could travel safely within the U.S., giving people the confidence to hit the road during the holiday weekend.
Unfortunately, the rising number of travelers taking to the skies again has also resulted in an uptick of naughty passengers, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported 2,500 incidents of unruly passengers this year.
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