Passengers are flooding back to airports across the nation this Thanksgiving, even nearing precoronavirus pandemic levels.
On Sunday, more than 2.1 million people were screened at airport checkpoints across the nation, 10% fewer people than were screened on the same day two years ago, according to Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Lisa Farbstein.
In comparison, the TSA screened approximately 2,396,681 people on Nov. 14, 2019, Farbstein said.
Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, a record 26 million passengers and crew passed through U.S. airport screening in the 11-day period around Thanksgiving. But that plummeted in 2020 as the pandemic kept people at home, further hindering the once-lucrative industry.
Now, AAA projects that air travel has «almost completely» recovered after being stifled during the pandemic by travel restrictions and global lockdowns and is «up 80% over last year.»
The association estimated that approximately 4.2 million people will travel by plane for the Thanksgiving break…
