Memorial Day weekend air travel tops pre-pandemic levels: TSA

by Julia Mueller - 05/30/23 10:36 AM ET

A TSA officer's uniform is shown in a closeup. — Tony Gutierrez, Associated Press file
A Transportation Security Administration officer works at Dallas Love Field Airport on June 24, 2020, in Dallas.

Air travel during the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend topped pre-pandemic levels, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced Tuesday.

The TSA said its agents screened nearly 9.8 million individuals at airports across the country over the holiday period — about 300,000 more than the 2019 Memorial Day weekend, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Friday reached 2.74 million people screened at airports, which the TSA says is the most it’s recorded in a day since the pandemic.

The reported figures are in line with an AAA prediction that air travel would surge back to pre-pandemic levels.

TSA has also forecasted an overall increase in travel this summer, which begins Memorial Day and runs through Labor Day in September.

The rise in Memorial Day air travel and the anticipated summer levels come after other high holiday travel numbers in recent months that have signaled travel and transportation are returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Tags air travel memorial day Pandemic TSA