It's A COVID-19 Pandemic Record -- Most Passengers Onboard Airplanes Since March
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - New numbers released by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) show that December 27 was the busiest day in the airline industry since March -- with nearly 1.3 million travelers.
Prior to yesterday, the precious pandemic record was set the day before Christmas Eve with about 1.2 million.
Despite the risk of COVID-19, many at DFW Airport took their chances this weekend.
"Flew out of Indianapolis. lines were short. It wasn't too bad," said traveler, Mark Holt.
"Coming back It was a little bit more crowded but you just still see everyone's still using social distancing," said traveler, Davette Quinones.
The increase though comes as part of the holiday rush where travel numbers are still down overall.
This time last year, TSA would normally screen about 2.5 million people per day.
"It's almost less than half of what we've been seeing, but we do continue to see folks who come to the airport, the holiday season is always our highest travel volume regardless of pandemic or not. So it's been true to form in 2020 that we're seeing a uptick of travelers, as we come into the holidays," said Patricia Mancha, TSA Texas Spokesperson.
DFW airport is anticipating about 2.2 million travelers from December 18th through January 4.
That number is 35% lower than in normal years.
DFW airport does not have any updated travel numbers yet, but do expect their busiest day to be January 3.
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