Pandemic air travel hits record 1M passengers per day for week straight

More than 1 million people traveled through U.S. airports for eight straight days, a record air travel figure since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 1.4 million people in airports on Thursday.

The last high before this week was March 15, 2020, when more than 1.5 million people passed through airports before lockdowns and recommendations against travel spurred by the pandemic. 

JUST IN: @TSA screened 1,407,223 people at security checkpoints yesterday, Thursday, March 18. It was the eighth consecutive day of checkpoint volume above 1M. The last time throughput was this high was on March 15, 2020, when 1,519,192 people passed through TSA checkpoints.

— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) March 19, 2021 

TSA screened more than 1.1 million people on Wednesday. The agency announced that the throughput has only been below the million mark five days this month. 

Overall, TSA screened 8.8 million passengers this week, CNN reported, attributing the high traffic to spring break trips.

Air travel is rebounding despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent announcement it was 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.

The U.S. Travel Association said in a release this week that Americans spent $1.5 trillion on travel in 2020, down from $2.6 trillion in 2019.