The July 4th holiday weekend got off to a booming start with a crowd of airports crushing the numbers seen in 2019 before the pandemic. rice field.
Travelers seem to have canceled their flight early on Friday, with less delay than earlier this week.
The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2.4 million travelers at an airport checkpoint on Thursday. This is 17% more than the same Friday before July 4, 2019.
"(Friday) will be busy, of course, and Sunday will be very busy," TSA administrator David Pekoske said in NBC's "Today" show.
AAA predicts that nearly 48 million people will travel at least 50 miles from their homes over the weekend, slightly less than in 2019. According to AAA, traveling by car sets a record even at the national average price of gasoline hovering. Nearly $ 5.
Leisure travel has recovered this year, offsetting the weaknesses of business trips and international flights. Still, the total number of people flying has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. The TSA screened 11% fewer people in June than in the same month of 2019.
Thursday is the 11th time since the pandemic began and TSA has checked more people than the same day in 2019. Second time since February.
With sufficient personnel, airlines can almost certainly carry more passengers.
Many US airlines have adjusted their summer schedules due to widespread cancellations over Memorial Day weekends due to bad weather, delayed air traffic, and a shortage of enough employees.
Airline executives have blamed the Federal Aviation Administration's flight problems, which operate the country's air traffic control system, but Secretary of Transportation Pete Butigeg disagrees with that claim. There is.
By midnight on the East Coast on Friday, the airline had canceled about 200 US flights and delayed another 1,400. According to tracking service FlightAware, at least 600 flights were canceled between June 22nd and Wednesday, with 4,000-7,000 flights delayed per day.
