For the first time in 12 months, the number of Americans traveling by air has topped 1.5 million, according to figures released on Monday (March 22) by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
According to the TSA’s data, 1,543,115 travelers were screened in the U.S. on Sunday (March 21), compared to 548,132 on the same day in 2020. That figure is still markedly lower than the 2.2 million passengers screened on March 21 in 2019.
“COVID-19 devastated air travel demand, with U.S. airline passengers down 60 percent in 2020,” Reuters said in a report on the findings. “But with a growing number of Americans getting vaccinated, demand and advanced bookings have started to rise in recent weeks.”
This increase is welcome news to the American travel industry, which saw $1.1 trillion in losses in 2020, a 42 percent decline from the previous year. Jobs connected to travel decreased by 5.6 million in that space of time, accounting for 65 percent of all lost jobs in the United States.
However, many in the industry say they’re confident that travel will rebound, with Booking Holdings’ CEO Glenn Fogel warning consumers earlier this month of a possible spike in prices as demand for travel increases.
According to the Reuters story, Sunday’s figure was the highest single day since March 13 of last year and the eleventh day in a row where the number of people screened surpassed one million. Those numbers will almost certainly climb later this year if and when the Biden administration eases travel restrictions at the Canadian and Mexican borders and on travel from Brazil and Europe. As PYMNTS reported last week, the White House is considering cutting back on the restrictions by mid-May. However, news of those discussions broke at the same time that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security extended the ban on land crossings at the northern and southern borders until April 21.
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