TSA Breaks Single Day Record For Highest Number of Passengers Screened

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What a difference a few years make. Three years ago today, TSA officers screened just 764,761 individuals. Yesterday, they broke their all-time record, as they screened 2,883,595 individuals. The previous record was 2,882,915, which took place on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2019. RELATED: 10 Airport Security Hacks Every Traveler Needs to Know

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg took to Twitter to celebrate the historic occasion. He posted: “Yesterday saw an all-time record number of US airline passengers. At 2.7%, the overall cancellation rate was the lowest since the week began. Good progress here—FAA will continue to work with airlines to manage weather & reduce delays.”

Yesterday saw an all-time record number of US airline passengers. At 2.7%, the overall cancellation rate was the lowest since the week began. Good progress here—FAA will continue to work with airlines to manage weather & reduce delays. https://t.co/v3sTvAN46z

— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 2, 2023

This is definitely a political win for Pete and for travelers as there weren’t many cancelations or delayed flights. According to FlightAware.com, as of 8:30pm ET, total delays within, into, or out of the United States today were 6,395. Total cancellations within, into, or out of the United States today: 247.

My sister Carol flew through New York’s LaGuardia this afternoon (I thought she was crazy) but she said her flights were great and on-time. However, she might’ve just gotten lucky as United Airlines has just issued a travel waiver for the northeast for the seventh consecutive day. It’s for flights through July 3.

This waiver allows for voluntary changes for travel to, from or through these airports: Baltimore, MD (BWI), New York/Newark, NJ (EWR), New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK), New York-LaGuardia, NY (LGA), Philadelphia, PA (PHL), Washington, DC – Dulles (IAD), Washington-National, DC (DCA) and White Plains, NY (HPN). If you don’t like hanging around airports or being annoyed by rolling delays, you might want to switch your flight to a different day.

The TSA predicted they would break the record so you have to give them and AAA credit as the latter predicted more than 50 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this weekend. Most folks will be driving (43.2 million) but 4.17 million will fly and more than 3.3 million are predicted to travel by bus, cruise or train.

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