TSA records busiest day since 2019 amid smooth holiday for air travel

The number of travelers flying to their destinations in recent days set a pandemic-era record, according to federal data, marking a busy but smooth Memorial Day weekend and start of the summer air travel season.

The Transportation Security Administration screened 2.74 million people Friday, the highest number since Thanksgiving weekend in 2019. The agency said it screened 9.8 million people over the four-day weekend, about 300,000 more than the same period in 2019.

The Federal Aviation Administration, meanwhile, said Thursday’s 54,684 flights were the most on a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.

Airlines are under pressure to deliver a smooth season after a bumpy pandemic recovery marked by high rates of delayed and canceled flights. The TSA and FAA figures are an early sign of strong travel demand as summer arrives and an indication that the system is ready for heavy volumes of passengers, with few disruptions reported in recent days.

Airlines canceled fewer than 1 percent of flights each day between Thursday and Sunday, according to data from tracking service FlightAware. Fewer than one-fifth of flights arrived late. The lower numbers also coincided with generally favorable weather across much of the country.

Aviation analyst Henry Harteveldt said good weather provided a boost, but airlines also have taken steps to ensure they are able to meet demand, investing in technology and staff.

“The weekend went very, very well,” Harteveldt said. “The airlines deserve credit for running a very good operation over the Memorial Day holiday.”

The industry has been under pressure from the Transportation Department to improve its performance. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted that he was encouraged by the limited flight disruptions.

“Low levels of delays and cancellations over the holiday weekend are evidence that sector-wide collaboration to improve airline reliability is on the right track,” he wrote.

The pandemic saw airlines shed workers as people stayed home. More than three years after the virus gripped the planet, air carriers are still dealing with the fallout, rebuilding employee bases and tuning operations for this new era.

Last summer, with the effects of the coronavirus receding, people were eager to get back onto planes. But airlines often found themselves unprepared, leading to rolling waves of cancellations and frustrations for travelers. The problems persisted into Christmas, with Southwest Airlines suffering a crippling meltdown that brought scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers.

That made this weekend, the start of the summer travel season, a key test. American Airlines, which has suffered at points in the recovery, said it didn’t cancel a single flight between Wednesday and Saturday and had to scrap only 34 regional flights over the weekend.

The numbers “continue to show significant improvement compared to both 2022 and 2019,” the airline said in a statement.

Southwest said it carried more than 2 million passengers over the weekend, operating more than 15,000 flights. Delta Air Lines said in a statement that it carried 2.8 million passengers. United said it carried 1.9 million passengers.

Harteveldt said airlines learned lessons after a painful summer and will likely see passenger counts that rival those of 2019.

“I think we will be on track to have a very, very solid summer,” he said.

The potential for problems remains. Airlines have succeeded on key travel weekends in recent years, only to face disruptions on others. Meanwhile, a critical air traffic control facility in New York is understaffed as the FAA works with airlines on plans to mitigate the effects.

Despite the uncertainty, Hannah Walden, a spokeswoman for trade group Airlines for America, said the weekend’s strong performance was an example of how carriers have laid the necessary groundwork.

“Our carriers have been making every effort to prepare for the busy summer travel season, including hiring rapidly for positions across the industry and reducing schedules in response to the FAA’s staffing shortages,” Walden said in an email.