More than 2 million people flew through American airports on Sunday despite hundreds of canceled flights and concerns about the new coronaviruses omicron variant, as the 2021 holiday season continues to see a recovery from the pandemic lows.
The Transportation Security Agency TSA said yesterday that 2,070, 554 people were screened at checkpoints around the country.
Sunday was the third time in five days, and the seventh time since Dec. 16 that the TSA screened more than 2 million passengers in a single day. The number of passengers screened was an increase of 83% from the same day last year, according to the 2.07 million passengers screened.
The TSA screened 2,470, 786 people on December 26th, 2019 for the holiday season, but the 2021 holiday season is falling short of the prepandemic 2019 benchmarks for the industry.
The only day this month when 2021's travel numbers outstripped 2019 was December 22. Between 2019 and 2021, the travel numbers for Christmas Day were down nearly 1 million.
The holiday travel is being handicapped this year due to hundreds of flight cancellations from major U.S. airlines and fears about the new omicron variant discovered in South Africa last month.
The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation. We have had to cancel some flights and notify impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport, according to United Airlines on Christmas Day.
The cancellations of 1,516 U.S. flights were canceled Sunday, according to FlightAware. As of Monday morning, 763 flights at US airports are already canceled, a number that may increase as the day goes on.
Many state and local officials warned Americans to either cancel their holiday gatherings or downsize their holiday gatherings.
Cheryl Bettigole, Philadelphia Health Commissioner, said before the holiday, please do not hold or attend holiday parties indoors. It's just too dangerous.
It appears that many people disregarded that advice, with TSA screening numbers rebounding significantly from 2020, but many thousands more likely had their plans disrupted due to the weekend's travel woes.