U.S. air travel traffic busiest in three months

With the month of March sweeping in next week and spring break for millions of students and families looming, here’s a good omen.

Airline traffic had its busiest days during the President’s Day Weekend since Thanksgiving travel some three months ago.

According to Transportation Security Administration data and multiple media outlets, including CNBC, nearly 8.4 million people went through security at U.S. airports from Friday, February 18, through Monday, February 21, an average of more than two million travelers a day.

By comparison’s sake, the 8.4 million travelers were double the number during the same time period in 2021 but down 7.5 percent from 2020 – roughly about three weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting down travel and tourism.

Still, it bodes well for the upcoming spring break travel period and on into summer travel. It was around this time in 2021 that the phenomenon of “pent-up demand” began to hit and millions of travelers went back to flying after being sidelined for the better part of a year.

While business travel has still lagged, aviation industry leaders are hopeful that the continued demand for leisure travel will rise as well as a resurgence of international travel. With COVID cases plummeting around the world, many countries like Australia and Israel and a good portion of Europe have reopened to fully vaccinated travelers and with fewer restrictions.