Sunday Was the Busiest Day for Air Travel in Weeks
Travel restrictions have caused air travel to drop by as much as 96% in recent weeks. On March 1st for example, TSA reports that 2,280,522 people passed through its checkpoints, including workers and crew members. That was just about 20,000 less the same day a year ago. This was before the federal government and states started issuing lockdown orders and travel bans.
Just six weeks after that, on April 14th, only 87,534 people passed through TSA checkpoints. That was the slowest day for air travel and an incredible drop of 96.2% when compared to the previous year.
But the travel industry received good news on Sunday. April 26th marked the busiest day for air travel in the last three weeks. A total of 128,875 travelers and crew passed through TSA checkpoints that day. That is a 47% increase from the lowest point. However, that number is still almost 95% down from a year ago.
Here is a chart of checkpoint travel numbers, as reported by the TSA, for 2020 and compared to the same weekday in 2019.
We are seeing a slight increase this week, but the Association of Flight Attendants is not happy about people resuming travel just yet. In a letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar, it is calling on the government “to mandate masks in aviation for crew, employees and passengers; require personal protective equipment; and suspend all leisure travel until the virus is contained.” JetBlue was the first airline to mandate masks from check-in, up to the moment passengers step off the plane.
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This is NOT good news, really. Maybe for airlines, but not for their front line employees, exposed to more possible carriers of Corona Virus, nor for the increased moving around of potential carriers all over the country, and indeed, the world.
There should be absolutely as minimal as possible travel at this time for epidemiological reasons.
I removed his comment Carl
Thank you, sir.