1.5 million US air passengers fly in a day for first time since last March

More than 1.5 million people traveled through U.S. airports on Sunday, the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic that aviation throughput has been this high.

The last time more than 1.5 million people traveled through domestic airports in a day was on March 15, 2020, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), before lockdowns and recommendations against travel spurred by the pandemic. 

Sunday was also the 11th day in a row that airports had more than 1 million passengers traveling. TSA screened 1,369,180 passengers on Saturday and 1,468,516 passengers on Friday. 

JUST IN: @TSA screened 1,543,115 people yesterday, Sunday, March 21. The last time checkpoint throughput topped 1.5 million was March 15, 2020–just more than a year ago. Yesterday was also the 11th consecutive day with checkpoint volume exceeding 1 million.

— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) March 22, 2021

Thursday marked the eighth straight day that more than 1 million people traveled through airports, which was the first time during the pandemic air travel hit 1 million passengers for a week straight.

Air travel is rebounding despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent announcement it would not change its travel recommendations for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. The CDC still recommends against Americans traveling.

The airline industry has been devastated throughout the pandemic due to the lack of travel.