Memorial Day Weekend Shows Air Travel Still Rebounding

As expected, airline travel was up again for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

The Transportation Security Administration reported screening 1,959,593 passengers on Friday, May 28, the first day of the four-day weekend.

That’s a post-pandemic, single-day record.

The TSA hasn’t counted as many as 1.9 million passengers since March 8, 2020. The full impact of the COVID-19 virus then hit about a week later, on March 16, 2020, the first time less than 1 million passengers were screened. It took seven more months, to Oct. 18, 2020, before the number of fliers in a single day went back over 1 million.

The 1,959,593 passengers screened last Friday still haven’t approached 2019 numbers, however. On May 28, 2019, more than 2.57 million customers took to the air.

So far, in the three days of the long weekend – Friday, May 28; Saturday, May 29; and Sunday, May 30 – the total number of air travelers has been 5,215,857 passengers. The final day of the four-day holiday weekend is today, Monday, May 31, and the number of fliers might set a four-day post-pandemic record or it could also set a three-day record if the number of travelers surges past 2 million.

So far, those 5,215,857 passengers from Friday to Sunday are the second-highest three-day total post-pandemic. The previous weekend, from Friday, May 21 through Sunday, May 23, some 5,234,174 passengers flew domestically for the highest three-day, post-pandemic record.

On Saturday following the record-breaking day, 1,605,810 people flew and on Sunday another 1,650,454 were screened for a two-day total of 3,256,264. To break the three-day record, 1,977,911 travelers need to fly today, Monday, May 31.

Those numbers will be out on Tuesday morning.