Air travel hits new post-pandemic record
Travelers make their way through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Thursday
By Gregory Wallace and Pete Muntean, CNN
(CNN) — Memorial Day air travel just reached the highest level in nearly three and a half years.
The Transportation Security Administration reports screening 2,658,057 passengers on Thursday, besting by only a few thousand the pandemic-era high set just last Friday. This Friday is expected to be even busier.
The last time TSA reported a higher screening number was in the Thanksgiving travel period in 2019.
TSA Administrator David Pekoske said at a news conference this week that the agency expects to screen 10 million passengers over the Memorial Day period.
“We figure that we will see 2.6 million people on a regular basis across this holiday weekend,” Pekoske said. “From TSA’s perspective, we are ready. We have more staff on hand this year than last year which is a good thing because we have more passengers this year than we had last year.”
About 10 million people are expected to travel through airports over the course of the holiday weekend, he said.
Pekoske said the TSA expects to maintain standard wait times of 30 minutes or less on average in regular security screening lines and 10 minutes or less in TSA PreCheck lanes.
The agency this week announced an expansion of the PreCheck program to include teens traveling with their parents or guardians.
The-CNN-Wire
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