TSA Sets Another Pandemic-Era Record for Screened Passengers

Fueled by holiday travel, the Transportation Security Administration had a big weekend in terms of the number of passengers screen, including a pandemic-era single-day record.

The TSA screened 3,326,160 passengers for the three days beginning Friday, January 1, capped off by the highest number of travelers in a single day since March of 2020, the height of the coronavirus pandemic when more than 1.3 million people took to the air in the U.S.

BREAKING NEWS: @TSA screened 1,327,289 people at airport checkpoints nationwide yesterday, Sunday, Jan. 3. It was the highest checkpoint volume since the pandemic hit. It was also the 8th of the last 12 days and 11th of the last 16 days that throughput topped 1 million.

— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) January 4, 2021

It’s not a surprise, however, as the last day prior to children returning to school after almost two weeks off for the Christmas holiday is quite often one of the busiest travel days in U.S. airports as families come back from a long vacation.

While it’s a good sign for the airlines, it still is far below the 2.4 million passengers the TSA screened last year on the Sunday after New Year’s Day.

Since the pandemic began, there have only been 16 days where the TSA processed more than 1 million passengers in the last 10 months, according to Travel+Leisure. The first day of more than 1 million travelers was mid-October. At its lowest point, the TSA processed just 87,600 people in April of 2020.